


The Hunter's Dancer

by CreemPyy



Series: The Dancer and The Hunter [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Canon Non-Binary Character, Fluff, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Original Character(s), Other, Spoilers for Season 2, a bit of angst, rewrite with my character in it, tries to stick to canon, will add more tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 40,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28516899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreemPyy/pseuds/CreemPyy
Summary: In this dark and lonely world... I found you. I found someone who will take away all my masks and see me for who I really am... See me without judging me or accusing me... See me without backing away, being either frightened or ashamed... See me for who I who I really am and love me just the same. - Jocelyn SorianoOrElwyn and Din are now on a mission to return the Child back to his people. They'll learn more about themselves and their past along the way and grow their bond even more than ever before.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Original Character(s), Din Djarin/Reader
Series: The Dancer and The Hunter [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2080242
Kudos: 5





	1. Holy Diver

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter title inspired by the song Holy Diver by Dio.
> 
> WELCOME TO SEASON 2!!! If you're new here, I would recommend checking out season 1 before reading this unless you want to go in blind, I don't mind :) and anyway... ENJOY!!! I had a lot of fun writing this episode!

An industrial planet. Walking through an industrial city. Glowing red eyes peered through the dark, the streetlamps lining the path pushing back the creatures and away from the two figures and the floating pram beside them both. Elwyn Fable rubbed their hands together nervously as they looked around at the surrounding street, noticing the blood red eyes glowing at them and following their every move.

They turned their head to look at their partner, a nervous expression plastered on their face as their brow furrowed.

“This place creeps me out Din,” they muttered quietly.

“Don’t worry Elwyn. We’ll be in and out,” he muttered back, “And we’ve talked about this. Don’t call me by my name when we’re in public.”

Elwyn mentally punched themselves. They forgot again, “sorry,” they said sheepishly. Din simply sighed in response. 

They finally approached a large doorway, din knocking his hand against the metal. It opened up and they were greeted with a dark-skinned Twi’lek who glanced at the odd couple with their green child.

“We wish to speak with Gor Koresh,” Din says. 

The Twi’lek nodded, standing to the side to let them through, “enjoy the fight.”

Elwyn nods to him in polite thanks and follows Din inside, the pram drifting close beside him. The roaring of the crowd blasted through Elwyn’s ears, causing Elwyn to jump whenever they all cheered loudly. They looked to the fighting ring noticing the two pig-men, Gamorreans, attacking each other with vibro-axes. All they could do was watch as they tried hitting one another. Din saw the Abyssin, sitting beside him. Elwyn on the other side of Din, trying to pry their eyes from the fight before them. 

“This is no place for a Child,” Koresh says. 

Din looks to him, “Wherever I go he goes.” 

Elwyn looked to the kid as he watched the battle, flinching ever so slightly when one of the fighters almost hit the other. Elwyn stroked his little head, trying to calm his nerves a little. All they could think of was that Koresh was kind of right by saying that, but they pushed that thought away as best they could.

“I’ve been quested to bring him to his kind. I’ve come here to ask if you know where any other Mandalorians who might help me,” Din adds.

Koresh gestures to the fight in front of them all, “It is uncouth to talk business like this. Just sit back and enjoy the entertainment.”

The Child squirms as one of the pig-men knocks his opponent to the ground. Koresh urges the Gamorrean with the upper hand to kill his opponent yet was unsuccessful when it dodged out of harm’s way. Elwyn stoked at his head again before moving their fingers to his little hand, letting him hold onto them to calm him down.

“Do you like to gamble?” Koresh asks after a couple minutes. Elwyn looked to him, feeling an uneasiness settle in the pit of their stomach. They didn’t like where this was going. They found Din’s hand and squeezed, hoping that would tell him how they didn’t trust this man. He squeezed back.

“I prefer to avoid gambling,” he replies to the Abyssin. 

Elwyn moved their hand down to their crossbow blaster, gripping the handle tight and ready to fire.

“I bet on the information that you seek,” He spoke. He pointed to one of the fighters, “That one is going to die in the next minute and a half.”

Elwyn gripped tightly onto their crossbow, slipping their other hand from Din’s, and putting it on their handgun, ready to fire.

“In return for the information, I suggest you, perhaps, trade your armour to me,”

“I’m willing to pay, but I’m not leaving my fate up to choice,”

Elwyn slips their blasters from their holsters, placing them at their sides. 

“Neither am I,” Koresh replies, shooting one of the Gamorreans, causing the crowd to erupt into screams as they all flee the arena, scared for their lives. Elwyn whips their blasters out, aiming one at Koresh and another at one of his associates who had a blaster aimed at them. Yet they soon realised that all of his associates had blaster aimed at both of them, one barrel pointing into the back of their head. Elwyn frowned in frustration, groaning at the realisation that they’d both been duked. The Child shuts his pram’s doors for safety. 

“I should thank you for saving me the task of hunting Mandalorians to harvest their Beskar armour,” he mocks, “The price for Beskar as risen and continues to rise. I have profited from it before.”

Elwyn growls, pushing their handgun further towards Koresh, however, the surrounding blasters did the same. They huffed in annoyance. 

“And I guess I could make use of your little friend here. They’d make a great pet,” Koresh smiled, looking at Elwyn. They physically gagged, “Surrender your armour, or die.” 

Din felt a rage bubble up in his chest when he heard those words come from Koresh’s mouth. _They’d make a great pet_. He resisted the urge to get hostile so easily. 

“I’ll give you one more chance to avoid hostilities. I’ll spare your life if you tell me where I can find other Mandalorians,”

Elwyn growled, “I’ll shot you if you refuse before any other your lackies can shoot me.”

“Feisty. And I thought you weren’t a gambler,”

“I’m not” He replies, activating his whistling bird, blinding Koresh’s thugs. Elwyn gets up, pushing the Child’s pram away for safety as the partners got to work. The surviving Gamorrean fighter lunges at Din, but misses, crashing onto a wooden bench. Elwyn fires their handgun at it, making sure it won’t get up again. The dark Twi’lek lunges for Elwyn and a Zabrak man grabs onto Din. Elwyn kicks and stomps at the Twi’lek as it grips onto them. They shake their head before muttering a small sorry as they turned around in his grip and kneed him in the lucky charms. He doubled over, letting go of Elwyn as they reached for their blaster, shooting him. Din manages to break free from the Zabrak and knocks him out. 

An alien with black curly hair and another Zabrak joins the fight but the Mandalorian kills them with a blade. Elwyn smiled at Din before they noticed Koresh attempting to flee after witnessing his associates either get killed or incapacitated. The two make their way out of the arena, Elwyn pulling the Child’s pram to follow the two.

They soon found the man, running and stumbling, yet he wasn’t fast enough for Din. He shoots a wire from his wrist cuff, catching Koresh by the ankles. Din then throws the wire over a pole, forcing Koresh to hang by his feet.

“Please! Please don’t hurt me! I’ll sell you the whereabouts of another Mandalorian in return for my life!!”

“You won’t die by our hands,”

Koresh lets go of a shaky breath in relief and he smiles, “Another Mandalorian is rumoured to live on Mos Pelgo on the planet Tatooine. Din nods, satisfied with the information he heard. Elwyn waves with a sarcastic smile plastered on their face, letting it fall after a second, walking away with the Child’s pram floating beside them. The partners leave him hanging there before Din shot the streetlamp Koresh was tied to. 

“W-wait!!! You said you wouldn’t hurt me!!!” He cried, the glowing red eyes stalking closer to him.

“You wouldn’t be hurt by our hands! We keep our promises!” Elwyn shouted over to him, a grinning widely as they skipped backwards, watching as the creatures lunged at Koresh. Elwyn huffs a sound of amusement before turning to face the front again, punching Din in the arm playfully. 

“Off to Tatooine!” Elwyn smiled, giggling slightly.

~~~

The two enter the atmosphere of Tatooine. Elwyn leans over the control panel, looking down on the sandy planet. Din sighed, picking up their hand to move away from one of the buttons on the control panel. 

“So many memories here!” Elwyn grinned.

“You were stabbed twice the last time we were here,”

“Yeah, I know. I still can have good memories despite that, hun,”

Din felt his brain stop for a second at the nickname. He shook his head, trying to stop the blush forming on his cheeks. Thank the Maker Elwyn couldn’t see it. He cleared his throat.

“How is your scar on your back?”

Elwyn laughed, turning to face Din, “That was months ago now! You’re still fussing over it?!”

“Just asking,” He huffed. 

Elwyn laughed, planting a kiss on the top of his helmet before sitting down in the co-pilot seat. Ever since the two become official, they’d noticed his little changes in demeanour. He was still the same most of the time way before they even were a couple, yet he was more affectionate, worrying over Elwyn sometimes and even asking if their scars were ok, despite healing ages ago. You’d think that they’d find his mother hen attitude annoying with his constant worrying all the time, yet Elwyn didn’t in the slightest. Watching such an aggressive fighter and killing machine turn into a worried mess at the drop of a hat was rather funny and cute actually. 

Elwyn was also very happy with him and how much he was coming out of his shell. When they hooked up, he was so touchy around them in the Razor Crest, yet once out in the open, he was rather nervous and embarrassed with public affection. Elwyn understood that he wanted to distance himself with them to keep them safe, but he soon gave up, starting to just accept their love of showing affection. But Elwyn soon noticed that he begun to get comfortable with showing public affection too. To winding one of his hands through theirs, partaking in Keldabe Kisses every now and then. It was to die for. 

Maker did Elwyn love him. Their Din. Their Mandalorian.

He landed the Razor Crest at a familiar friend’s hanger bay. Peli Motto’s. The three climb out of the ship and make their way down the ramp. Peli smiles upon seeing the familiar crew, welcoming them with open arms. Din stands there as Elwyn wraps Peli in a hug, patting her on the back before pulling away.

“Long time no see!” Elwyn grins.

“I could say the same thing to you three!” She smiles. Peli soon notices her three DUM-series pit droids approach his ship, “Hey! No touching!”

“No. They can look after it. The thing needs a good one-over,” Din replies. 

Peli looks at him like he has three heads before signalling them to continue towards the Crest, “So he likes droids now!”

Elwyn giggled, “A change of heart,” They batted their eyelashes at him. He shook his head as Elwyn wrapped their arms around one of Din’s looking up at him. Peli grins, noticing the two and the way they now acted around each other. 

“A lot has changed since you were last in Mos Eisley!” She looked to the Child, a huge smile forming on her face, “Hey little guy!!! I’ve been worried sick about you!”

She pulls him from his pram and cradles him in her arms, bouncing him lightly as he coos, his big black eyes batting lightly up at the familiar face, “Wish I could have more of your kind.”

A sound comes from over near the ship. Everyone turns their heads to look at where the noise came from and they all notice the pit droids tangling with the coils of the ship. Elwyn stifles a giggle, feeling the tough Mandalorian tense up at the sight of the droids playing around with his ship. 

“Hey! Be careful! Mando here distrusts droids. Don’t give your kind a bad name,” Peli shouts over at them. They all quickly untangle from the mess they’ve made before returning to the job at hand. 

“We’re here on business. And we need your help,” Din said, trying to distract him from the disaster that was happening over near his ship.

“I can look after the kid while two go adventuring,”

“We’re on a quest to bring him back to his kind,” Elwyn replied. Peli nodded, handing the kid back over to Elwyn. They smiled down at him before putting him back in his pram. 

“I can’t help you! I have no idea what his kind even is!” She said, gesturing to the Child.

Din shakes his head, “I’ve been sent to seek one of my own kind. If I can locate one of my own, I can chart a path through the network coverts.”

“You’re the only Mandalorian that I’ve seen in years,”

Elwyn looks to the ship before turning back to face Peli, “Do you know about Mos Pelgo? Apparently a Mandalorian lives there.”

Peli looks around in thought, letting out a huge sigh, “that town was lost to time and all maps. After the Empire’s fall the planet became free-for-all. The city ended up being destroyed by bandits.”

She called over an astromech droid, telling it to project a hologram of Tatooine, “Mos Pelgo should be around here. The town used to be an old mining settlement.”

Din nods. It was time to head out.

~~~ 

The two make their way on a speeder bike. The kid sat in a pouch that hung over Din’s shoulders and Elwyn buried their face into his back, their arms wrapped tightly around him as to not fall off. Peli had noted that they’d spot his ship from a mile a way so taking a speeder was a better option. 

“Are you sure I’m not slowing the bike down?!” Elwyn yelled over the loud revving of the bike’s engine.

“The bike is strong enough! Plus, if I can carry you while using my jetpack, then the bike should be fine!” he yelled back.

Night soon settled over the desert and the two found a group of Tusken Raiders. They both sit around the fire with them, basking in the warmth. Elwyn admired the way he moved his hands to talk to them, watching in wonder as they all had a conversation in sign language. Elwyn sighed, resting their head against Din’s shoulder, actually finding it comfy resting their cheek against the cold and hard metal pauldron. The Raiders soon settle down for the night, Din and Elwyn doing the same. 

They look to the sky, looking at all the stars glinting down at them. They found Din’s hand, weaving their fingers through his. He glances to them, before resting his helmet gently on their head. 

“You will rest. Right Din?” Elwyn muttered, feel sleep pull down at their eyelids. 

They’d noticed for the past few days that he wasn’t sleeping, either busy piloting the Crest or tinkering with whatever he could find around the ship, leaving Elwyn alone in their now shared bunk. 

He simply hums, for once feeling sleep get the better of him.

~~~

The next morning, the group begin their journey again, the Child in his satchel and Elwyn clinging tightly to their partner. Eventually they find the city after going through some rocky passes. Din slows the bike down as they pass along the main drag of shacks. 

“Everyone is staring,” Elwyn whispers to him.

“Just stay calm. We’ll stop here at the cantina,” He replies, pulling up to said cantina. The two dismount and enter, Din placing the Child down on the bike. Din approaches the bartender while Elwyn finds a seat for the both of them close to the entrance. The Child soon follows the two inside, sneaking inside. Elwyn smirks before leaning down to scoop up the kid. He coos at them which elicits a small chuckle from Elwyn.

“You aren’t that sneaky around me kid!” they cooed, nuzzling their nose into his little chest, causing him to giggle.

“You don’t happen to know about a Mandalorian living around here?” Din asks the Weequay. 

He tilts his head, “What does he look like?”

“Like me,” 

The bartender nods his head, looking at Din, “do you mean The Marshal?” he points to the doorway.

Din turns and Elwyn looks to. In the doorway is The Marshal, covered head to toe in old beat up and chipped green Mandalorian armour. Elwyn gets up, putting the Child on the ground before moving over to their partner at the bar.

“We’ve been searching you for many parsecs,” Din says, excitement lining his voice. The Marshal walks over and orders three snorts of spotchka. He gabs the drinks from the Weequay and sits down at a table, inviting both people to a drink. They both begin to move towards the table as the man removes the beat-up helmet. 

“I’ve never met a real Mandalorian,” The Marshal grins, sipping at his drink, “I’ve heard stories about how good your kind is at killing.”

Elwyn looks to Din, feeling anger leaking from his body. Elwyn looked back at the man and frowned. They travelled all this way to find a fake. They pursed their lips together, blaming Koresh for taking them on an idiotic wild goose chase.

“I expect you to be upset about me wearing traditional Mandalorian armour,” he says, taking another sip of his drink, “I believe a duel would ensue.” 

He notices the Child hiding behind a pot near the bar.

“your name,” Din demanded.

“The name’s Cobb Vanth. I’m the protector and marshal of Mos Pelgo,”

“where did you get that armour?” Din asks.

“I bought it off some Jawas! Simple as that,”

“Take it off,” 

Elwyn could feel him tense, talking through gritted teeth in anger.

Vanth laughs, “I understand that you call the shots where you come from, but around here, I’m the one that tells folks what to do.”

Din sighs heavily, moving forward slightly, ready to attack, “Take it off. Or I will.”

“You sure you wanna do it in front of the kid and your friend here?”

“I’m quite capable of putting a hole in that big head of yours, asshole,” Elwyn hissed, picking up their blaster and aiming it at him. He puts his hands up, smirking like it was a joke. Din put his hand on theirs, lowering the blaster. They turn to him, “Let me at him,” they whispered up to him.

Din looked to Vanth before turning back to look at Elwyn, “I better do this, Elwyn. That armour is from my people.”

Elwyn nods, putting their blaster away and standing back, ready to watch Din kick his ass.

Suddenly, they hear a rumbling outside. Everyone looks out the door, the shaking getting heavier with whatever was approaching. They group walk outside and watch everyone and everything retreat away.

A large monstrous shape swims under the sand, stirring up the ground beneath. The creature moves further through the town, rising out of the sand and devouring a Bantha that had been drinking from a water trough. Elwyn clasped their hands over their mouth upon seeing the Bantha disappear and the monster flee through the sands, leaving the town behind. 

“We can work something out,” Vanth says in reply to all the ruckus. 

~~~ 

Following the departure of the monster, the town’s residents begin repairing the damage. Elwyn carries the Child in their arms as Din and Vanth walk beside them through the town.

“That greater Krayt dragon has been terrorizing this area long before Mos Pelgo was established,” Vanth explains to the two, “I used this set of Mandalorian armour to protect the town from bandits and Sand People, but the Krayt dragon is too much for me to take on alone.”

Elwyn looks to him as he looks down at the ground sadly. He must have lost a lot of people to these sorts of things. Especially the dragon. 

“I’ll give you to armour in return for killing the monster,” Vanth offers, stopping to turn and face them both.

“I can use the Razor Crest to blow the Dragon out of the sky using some Bantha as bait,” Din says. Elwyn simply watches on.

“No. that won’t work. The dragon senses vibrations created by starships and will just hide underground,” he thinks for a moment before coming up with an idea, “I can lead you to where the dragon lives. It’s not far from here.”

~~~ 

Elwyn and Din are back on the speeder again, Vanth riding beside them on a modified popracer. The kid smiled as he felt the wind whip past him. Elwyn on the other hand hated the wind in their hair so much. At times like these, they wish they had a helmet like Din’s. 

“Mos Pelgo was on its last leg shortly after we got news about the second Death Star’s destruction,” He explained, “While everyone was celebrating everywhere, ours was short-lived because the Mining Collective took advantage of the power vacuum to invade Mos Pelgo. It became a slave camp overnight.”

Elwyn’s heart soon hurt upon hearing the news about the small town. They may have gotten off on the wrong foot with Vanth to begin with, but after a while, they knew he cared about his town. They knew because of the sadness that washed over his face. 

“I ended up escaping with a camtono carrying silicax crystals,” He continued, “I wandered for days with no food and water, until I found a Jawa sandcrawler. They saved my life in turn for the crystals. In return, I took the armour and ammunition.”

Using that armour he scared off the Mining Collective, landing him with the title of Marshal. Yet the poor man couldn’t help his town this time. Elwyn gripped tighter onto Din. They had to stop this beast. 

They all soon approached a canyon, travelling through it winding paths. Elwyn could only look around in awe at the strange natural formations that the canyon took. Din soon slows, making Vanth halt. He looks to the Beskar covered man in confusion. He points forward. From the shadows of the canyon, a pack of Massiffs emerge, baring their teeth at the group, ready to pounce.

Elwyn looks out from behind Din, eyeing the pack of alien dogs carefully. Their ears soon rung as ear-piercing grunts ring through Din’s chest and reverberating against Elwyn’s body. Din was speaking in Tusken. They looked at him wide-eyed. 

He gets off the bike and approaches the closest Massiff as it tilts its head at the bounty hunter. He kneels down in front of it and begins rubbing at its sides, causing its tiny tail to wag. Elwyn smiles, slowly approaching the dog and crouching down beside Din. It looks to them before Din grunts something at it in Tusken. Before Elwyn knew it, the thing was shaking its stubby tail happily, signalling that Elwyn could pet it. They grinned, scratching at its head.

“Can we keep him?” Elwyn asked, batting their eyes and pouting. 

Din turn his head to them before very blankly saying, “No.”

Elwyn pouted, just enjoying the time they had petting the Massiff. The grunting of a group of Tusken raiders causes the group to look up. Their weapons were drawn, ready to strike the intruders of their land who dare so touched their pets. Elwyn reached for their gun but Din put his hand out to stop them. He put his hands around where his mouth would be before shouting something at them in Tusken. Elwyn couldn’t help but just gawk at the man. First he could communicate to them in sign language and now he speaks Tusken. To be honest, they found it kinda sexy. 

“What’s going on?” Vanth asks, still mounted on his bike behind them.

Din turns to him, “They also want to kill the Krayt dragon.”

~~~

The group sat around a campfire with the Tuskens. The poor kid warily eyes a Massiff that currently had its head rested atop Elwyn’s lap. They looked to the Child before smiling, becoming him to come pat it. He waddles over slowly, and the alien dog glances at the kid before lowering its head down to him, letting his little clawed hand pat at its head gently before moving back to Elwyn’s lap. 

Din speaks with the Tuskens and Vanth could only watch in silence. One Tusken moves to offer Elwyn a drink from a black melon, which Elwyn accepts, too scared to turn down a Sand Person. They sniffed at it, trying not to screw their nose up in disgust. They had heard about these fruits and the milk that lay inside. According to most people it tasted awful, but Elwyn was willing to try it for the sake of peace between the group of humans (and a green child) and the Tuskens. They nodded to themselves, lifting the thing to their mouth and sipping.

Actually, it wasn’t that bad. They continued to drink it as the Tusken who offered it to them made a sound that what could only be described as happy. The chieftain soon offers one to Vanth, yet he declines.

“It’s not wise to offend our hosts. These guys are upset about you stealing their water and not drinking it,” Din explains.

Elwyn leaned over to him, gesturing to their drink, “It actually doesn’t taste that bad, if that makes you feel better.”

Vanth just ignores them, still refusing the drink it. The chieftain stands, gurgled cries of anger echoing through the night. Vanth stands too, both arguing back and forth, their cries ringing through the cold desert night. Elwyn could only sip at their drink, trying to ignore the noise and the settling numbness in their legs from the Massiff’s head laying on their lap.

Fire soon spreads in the air, shooting out from one of Din’s cuffs, silencing both people.

“If you fight amongst yourselves, the monster will kill us all. Now, let’s focus on the plan,” Din shouts. Elwyn sips at their drink again, trying not to laugh at the pout somewhat forming on Vanth’s face as Din scolds them like an angry parent breaking up their kid’s fight. 

~~~ 

The following day, the group travel with the Raiders on Banthas to confront the dragon. Elwyn rode with Din, loving every second of being near such a gentle giant. The group soon made it to its cave, watching from afar as a lone Tusken and his steed approach the cave. One of the Tuskens with them started signing to them.

“He says that the dragon lives in an abandoned Sarlacc pit,” Din translated.

Vanth laughed, “I’ve lived on Tatooine my whole life. There is no such thing as an abandoned Sarlacc pit.”

Din shook his head, “Not unless there’s something big enough to make it abandoned.”

Elwyn pursed their lips together, “Delicious,” They muttered.

Din pulls out his macrobinoculars, getting a closer look at what the Raider was doing with his Bantha, “They’ve studied its digestive cycle for generations. They feed the dragon to make it sleep longer.”

Elwyn nods, watching as the Tusken ties the Bantha to a stake, “smart.”

The Tusken calls out to the dragon before taking off, a roaring groan and the rumbling of the sand and rocks signalling that the Krayt dragon was coming. Its huge head soon emerges, sand kicking up in large puffs of dust as it pummelled its head towards the Raider, eating it and leaving the Bantha. 

The kid hides against Elwyn in fear as it retreats back into its cave, satisfied with its meal. Elwyn closed their mouth, realising that it had been hanging open this whole time as they watched the monster just eat that Raider like it was nothing. Well… to the dragon he was nothing. 

“Are you open to some fresh ideas?” Din offer.

~~~ 

“What are they doing?” Elwyn whispers to Din.

“They’re discussing a plan. They’re mapping it out with bones and rocks,”

Vanth looks at the model closer, “What’s us and what’s the dragon?”

Din points to the tiny rocks, “That’s us.”

Elwyn’s eyes widened at the sheer size of the Krayt model, a snake skeleton being used in its place, “That dragon must be huge if we are that tiny.”

Din nodded. The Tuskens soon turned to the group, grunting at them. Din looked to Vanth, “The plan involves your village.”

The group took off on the speeders back to the town. Elwyn doubted the plan would work, seeing as Mos Pelgo’s villagers and the Sand People didn’t have a very good relationship. But they knew Vanth would make it work. The town respected him. It has to work. Elwyn coughed as the sand drifted forward against them, really wishing now that they had something similar to Din’s helmet or at least a pair of goggles. 

The town soon started coming into view, growing larger and larger by the second. The group slowed to a halt.

“I’m not happy about working with them. The Raiders killed six of our miners less than a year ago,” He sighs heavily, “And in return I took down twice as many Tuskens.”

“The town respects you. They’ll listen,” Din says.

“I disagree,”

~~~ 

The town gathered inside of the small townhall, Vanth, Elwyn and Din standing in front of everyone. The murmuring stopped upon seeing the Beskar covered man. Elwyn smiled nervously at all the people staring back. Probably because they were carrying the Child in their arms. 

“Everyone, this is the Mandalorian and his friend…”

Elwyn rolled their eyes, “I’m Elwyn. His partner.” A smirked appeared on their face when Din pet the on the shoulder lightly.

“Yes, sorry. Elwyn,”

“I’ve heard the stories about Mandalorian,” the bartender remarks.

“Then you would know how good they are at killing,” He replies, “He wants to claim my armour, but in return, he’ll help us take down the Krayt dragon that has been raiding on our farm animals and our mining equipment. If we don’t act now, it may turn its attention to sentient beings and the school.”

A concerned murmur erupts through the room.

He swallows, ready to break the news of their new ally, “But we cannot take on the dragon alone, but the Sand People are willing to help.”

Angry protests shot across the room, causing Vanth to want to shrink into the ground. He knew it wouldn’t work.

“The Sand People are monsters who raid our mines!” one of the villagers shout.

“But the dragon could devour our town!” Vanth retaliates. 

Din steps forward, causing everyone to go silent at his sudden movement. Elwyn frowned, keeping an eye out for anyone who would talk back to him.

“I speak up for the Tusken Raiders. They are brutal, but they’ve survived for thousands of years in the Dune Sea. While they are raiders, they will keep their word,” He shouts, “We’ve struck a deal with them. In return for leaving them the dragon’s carcass and its ichor, the Sand People will stand by your side in battle and not attack this town unless you break the peace first.”

Elwyn stepped forward too, looking up at Din before back at the town’s people, “If you want to keep your town safe, then help us. Plus, the Raiders are pretty good in battle, so that’s a cool alliance you guys will have.”

The townsfolk agree.

~~~ 

Din stood outside the cantina, watching as the villagers assembled explosives and munitions. Elwyn walked up to his side, leaning against him. He sighed heavily.  
“What’s wrong?” Elwyn asked, looking up at him.

“I just hope this goes well,”

Elwyn hugged him, pressing a kiss to the side of his helmet, “It will. Trust me.”

The Sand People soon arrived on Banthas. Both allies begun loading explosives onto the Banthas, ready for battle. But of course, as soon as Elwyn mentions that everything will be fine, a fight breaks out. A Raider had accidently dropped one of the shells, a villager yelling at him in anger. Elwyn shook their head before running over to the scene, pulling away the Raider while Vanth pulled the Villager away.

“It was just an accident,” Vanth says.

“He could have blown the whole village up!!” The villager growls.

“He didn’t mean to. Leave him be,” Elwyn snaps at him, “It was just an accident.”

They look to the Raider and asks if he’s ok before helping him with the dropped shell. They smiled up at the Raider and he nodded in thanks before climbing onto his Bantha. It made Elwyn sad hearing people call them monsters. They seemed just as human as them and the townsfolk. Then again, humans could be just as bad as the Raiders. And despite what people said about the Sand People, Elwyn had grown a liking to them. Once you got past all the brutal power they had, they were just normal people. Elwyn smiled. It somewhat reminded them of Din. Once you got past all that Beskar and brooding nature, he was a sweetest and kindest person you could meet.

Once all the weapons were prepared, everyone begun the long trek to the cave of the Krayt dragon.

~~~ 

A lone Tusken approaches the cave while the Child watches from his cradle. Elwyn has their weapons in hand, crossbow warmed up and ready to fire. The dragon is sleeping, the sound of its breathing vibrating the ground slightly. A Tusken hands Vanth the black melon drink again. He looks to Din and Elwyn.

“It’s not that bad,” Elwyn grins.

He sighs before sipping on it. He pulls back slightly, startled. He was genuinely expecting it to taste bad. Elwyn forms a cheek splitting smile as they looked to Vanth, “Not that bad, is it?”

The townsfolk and the Tuskens soon get to work planting charges in the dirt at the opening of the cave, shovelling deep under the sand so the Dragon couldn’t see them when it emerged from its cave far enough. The next stage of the plan was to provoke it far enough outside to kill it with the explosives. Vanth was handed the master detonator. It was time. 

The Tuskens form a horseshoe-shaped array of ballistae with the townsfolk outside the cave. Elwyn looked to Din, “This is going to work.”

“Let’s hope so,”

Three Raiders approach the cave, making war cries into the cave. There was a pregnant pause in the air and tension seemed to rise with each passing second. Soon, the ground rumbled, rocks falling from the cliff face it was buried in as it emerged, the Tusken Raiders running out of its reach.

The Tuskens fire their ballistae, piercing the Krayt dragon’s hide with a sicken crunch. But that didn’t stop the beast from withdrawing back into the cave. Elwyn moves forward slightly from their position on the hill. It was retreating! In an effort to draw it back out, the army begins firing and hurling objects at the monster. And once again, they use the ballistae, dragging the beast out. A rumbling was heard deep within the belly of the beast as it opened its mouth, green vomit spraying over the small army in front of it. Yet it didn’t know that it was over the explosives. 

“Ignite them!” Din shouts. Vanth presses the button, causing the surrounding area to explode in a puff of smoke, sand flying up as the Krayt dragon fell into the sand. The sand settled and the beast was nowhere to be found. Elwyn smiled wide-eyed at the blast site.

“Did we do it?” They asked.

Silence fell over the battlefield, an eerie silence.

“It’s not dead yet,” Din says.

Before anyone could act, the dragon re-emerges from the top of a hill, spraying more vomit over the Tuskens and settlers. Elwyn stands, watching the sand roll down the hill, kicking up it up and almost covering the dragon’s moves in a cloud. Din and Vanth ignite their jetpacks and fly up to confront it, leaving Elwyn and the Child behind. Elwyn groans and pulls out their weapons, firing towards the dragon as best they could. If they couldn’t fly after the problem, standing here and attacking would be good enough. 

Both jet to the top of the hill, both men firing at the dragon, causing it to retreat underground. It soon returns however, coming up behind the attacking force. Vanth distracts the dragon by firing rockets at it. The two land on the ground soon after. Din looks around and notices a Bantha remaining with explosives still strapped to its back. 

“Look after the Child and Elwyn,” Din says, hitting Vanth’s jetpack, causing him to fly away to the flanks. Din runs towards the Bantha, activating the detonators on the Bantha steed. Elwyn rises higher from their position upon noticing him pulling at the reigns of the Bantha as the Beast crawls closer to him. 

“Din!” They cried to themselves, rushing down the hill as fast as they could, the kid’s pram floating close behind. They were halfway down the hill when the dragon swallowed both Din and the Bantha, disappearing underground soon after. Elwyn’s eyes widened and they sprinted down the hill, trying to rush past Vanth, yet he caught them, prying them away from getting any closer to harm. To Elwyn’s relief, the dragon emerged, watching Din fly from the monster’s mouth, and detonating the explosives, causing the dragon to crash down into the sand, sending a wave of dust towards the small army around it. Elwyn covered their eyes.

The dust begun to settle, the silhouette of the beast shining through the dust as Din emerged. Everyone erupted into applause, cheering loudly at the victory. 

The greater Krayt dragon was dead.

Elwyn smiled upon seeing their partner and rushed towards him, yet stopped a bit before him, noticing his armour covered head to toe in green slime. Elwyn goes to say something, yet stops themselves, patting his shoulder lightly instead of their initial plan. Giving him a hug.

“You have a bit of… um… green stuff on your helmet…” They spoke, pointing to his helmet.

Din sighed, despite not seeing his face, Elwyn knew that he wasn’t impressed with their observation, “You think?”

Elwyn giggles and they both make their way to his speeder bike. 

~~~ 

Din piles a block of the dragon’s meat onto his speeder bike. Elwyn pulled the Child’s hand away from it, telling him to not touch. Elwyn helps Din wrap it up in a cloth for safe keeping. 

“I’m sorry for not explaining my plan earlier,”

“No. I understand,” He replies. He soon starts to remove the armour, handing it over to Din, “And, in honour of our agreement. Tell your people that I didn’t do that damage to the backpack,” 

Elwyn then helps Din pile the armour into a net and attach it to the side of the bike before climbing on behind him. The two rode off, Elwyn waving goodbye to Vanth before they were too far from the explosion sight.


	2. Break my Stride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elwyn and Din get trapped on an ice planet with a guest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title inspired by the song Break my Stride by Matthew Wilder.
> 
> Chapter 2 time!! I had fun writing this one. Also Trigger Warning for frost bite wounds just in case. Plus, I did as much research as I for frost bite treatment but I think I might have got some stuff wrong with treatment so I'm super sorry if it's a bit off. Anyway, hope you enjoy!!!

Elwyn grips tightly onto Din’s back, drifting in and out of a light slumber. Sand kicks up around them as they zoom through the Tatooine desert, the sun beating down on them all. Elwyn adjusted their position slightly yet noticed something in the rocks in the distance. A dark figure. Someone was up front. And that didn’t sit right with Elwyn.

“Din! I think you should-” They started, yet they soon stopped after they felt themselves being flung from the bike, hurtling through the air only to land in the sand with a thud. They groaned, trying to get up, yet the impact they made with the ground winded them. Their bones ached and screamed, making them declare defeat with their body as they crashed back down into the sand.

Din uses his jetpack to steady his falls as he watches everything roll away, the speeder bike exploding in the distance. He looks around trying to find Elwyn yet was interrupted by the attacking raiders. 

An alien points one of his rifles at him, but Din fires his whip cord from his wrist cuff and pulls the rifle towards him, knocking the alien’s two assailants out either side of him. Din soon sees Elwyn collapsed in the sand. He rushes towards them, pulling them up into his arms, blood trickling from their nostrils. He looks around for the Child now before noticing the remaining alien holding the Child, a knife to his throat.

“If you hurt the Child, there is nowhere you can hide in the galaxy from me,” Din looks around, gesturing to the wreckage with his head, “There is a lot of valuable cargo in this wreckage. Take your pick.”

The alien looked around before demanding for the jetpack in his own language. Din nodded, adjusting Elwyn in his arms to pluck the pack from his back and set it on the ground. The alien places the Child on the ground and grabs the jetpack, running away. Din hoists Elwyn over his shoulders before picking up the kid in his arms. He sighs heavily before activating his jetpack with his wrist gauntlet controls, sending the alien high into the air before dropping him to his death. The pack soon lands a small distance before Din before rather comically falling over in the sand. He sighs, thinking about how he’s going to lug all his possessions plus an unconscious Elwyn all the way back to Mos Eisley on foot.   
That’s when he felt them stir. He gasped as they almost fell from his shoulder as they woke up with a fright at their current position. He pulled them over his shoulder and placed them down on the ground, helping them stand there for a minute to to gain balance.

“Are you alright, cyar'ika?” He asked.

Elwyn rubbed their head, looking up at him, “yeah. Everything is still spinning a little though. That nickname is new,” They smirked. 

Din sighed, shaking his head, yet Elwyn knew he had a smile on his face under that helmet. Elwyn looked around, noticing the wreck.

“How are we going to get back to Mos Eisley without a vehicle?” Elwyn asked, kneeling down, and picking up a bit of scrap from the bike. They looked at the scorched metal before chucking it to the ground. 

As Elwyn looked around at the wreck, Din notices how red their shoulders were. Being in the sun with barely anything covering their shoulders must have been painful. Or maybe they hadn’t even noticed. He slung his cape off from his shoulders before approaching Elwyn, wrapping it around their shoulders. They jumped away from his grasp, hissing in pain at the prickly wool touching their burnt shoulders. 

“I’m sorry! I didn’t want you to get more burnt than you already were,” Din said.

“I didn’t notice till just then. Wow, that really kriffing hurt,” they grunted, their shoulders visibly tensing underneath the cloth of his cape. He sighed, handing the kid to Elwyn as he moved to gather everything of his and lug it over his shoulders. Elwyn looked at him in shock, watching as they heard his breathing become laboured already. 

“Let me take something, please,” Elwyn said, reaching for the sack of Mandalorian armour.

He pulled away from them, “Your hurt.”

“Partially spinning vision with burnt shoulders. Taking something from your load won’t kill me,”

Din sighed, letting them take some of his weapons. They slung them over their shoulders gently, the kid nestling against their chest as the group began their long trek back to Mos Eisley. 

~~~ 

Night had fallen over the planet of Tatooine once the two reached Chalmun’s Cantina. They both found Peli playing some sort of card game with a giant insect. She looked at the two before noticing the helmet at Din’s side.

“You found a Mandalorian and killed him?!” She cries.

“He wasn’t a Mandalorian. And I bought it off of him by killing the Krayt dragon,” 

Peli looks at him with disbelief before pursing her lips together and nodding. Elwyn looked to his armour and noticed all the green goop from the dragon still sticking to his armour. They reached over, trying to pick at the stuff. They got a good grip of one bit and pulled, the trail of goo revealing the shiny Beskar underneath. Maker was that actually satisfying.

“That man was my last lead on finding other Mandalorians,”

The insect man clicked his mandibles together. Peli nodded, pointing to him, “Dr. Mandible here says he may be able to help you if you cover his wager for this round of sabacc.” 

Din sighed, “How much?” 

Peli purses her lips together again before looking at the insect then back at Din, “five hundred credits.”

Elwyn got on their tiptoes to whisper to Din, “I think it’s a trap.”

Peli smiled, shaking her head, “Nah, kid! Mandible is on a hot streak!”

He turns his head to them, whispering back, his voice barely able to be picked up by his helmet’s modulator, “I’ll take my chances.” 

He puts down the amount and waits for Peli to make a move. She looks at her cards and grins. She reveals her cards, laughing heartily, “Idiot’s Array!” she scoops the credits towards her, a fuming Mandalorian looming above her.

“You said he was on a hot streak,”

“Oh, stop your crying, you’ll rust!!”

Elwyn snickered, biting down on their thumb trying to stifle their laughter. 

“That’s not funny,” Din grumbled.

Elwyn soon erupted into a loud chuckled, slapping at their knee, “C-come on, hun… t-that’s kinda funny!” 

He shook his head. in the end, Mandible agreed to send his contact to the hanger, who can reveal the location of the other Mandalorians. 

Peli gets up, her job done and her pockets full, “well, let’s go! Hope that dragon meat you got is still good! I don’t like maggots.”

Din sighed, walking out of the cantina, Elwyn following close behind him.

“do you need an oil can for those tears?” Elwyn snickered, still reeling off of Peli’s joke.

“Elwyn,” he grumbled.

They punched him playfully in the arm, “Just checking, tin can! Don’t want that old man rusting away under all that armour.”

“I’m not old. I’m close to your age,”

“But you’re older than me still,”

The two of them walk through into the hanger, Elwyn still laughing at all the jokes they’ve been making. 

“Someone’s having fun,” Peli says upon noticing Elwyn laughing. 

“your little joke has got them going,” Din replied.

“Oh stop your whining and get that meat on a fire! I’m starving!”

Elwyn helped Din unload everything into the Crest, putting everything down in its own spot. Din looked to them as they pulled his cape from their shoulders. Their face screwed up in pain when the cape scraped across their burnt shoulders, making Din wince as he just imagined how much pain they must be going through. They approached him with the cape and handed it to him.

“Are you ok?”

“You love to say that don’t you?”

“Well, I’m not blind, I saw your face when you took that cape off. You’re in pain,” 

Elwyn moved over to the first-aid kit, digging through it to find something to sooth their burns. Yet… nothing. They looked around the ship more yet were unsuccessful.

“You have anything to help with sun burns?”

“You’re talking to someone who wears armour and clothes from head to toe,”

“I’ve got something!” Peli yells from outside the Crest. Elwyn rushes outside to her and takes the tube of clear liquid into their hands. It was some sort of soothing cream that Peli uses sometimes. Elwyn thanked her before zooming back into the Crest.

“Didn’t you offer them anything to protect them?!” Peli scolded him once Elwyn was out of ear’s reach.

“They insisted that they’d be fine. Like they always do,”

“Well, there is a Mandalorian covert in the next system,” She says, getting back to business, “The information is free, apart from my finder’s fee, but the contact wants passage to the system.”

“Sure,” he replies, turning to head to the ship.

“I should also mention that you must travel there without using the hyperdrive,”

Din whipped his head around to Peli, “No hyperdrive? The deal is off, sub-light is too dangerous, going fast is the only thing keeping us safe.”

Just as he says that the contact enters the hanger. A female of some sort of frog species. She carried a large canister on her back, containing bunches of eggs floating in liquid. She approaches Peli and croaks. 

“There are mitigating circumstances,” Peli says before turning to the lady and speaking her language. The Frog Lady croaks back in a short response.

“The cargo is her spawn, which must be fertilized before the equinox to continue her family line. Hyperspace will kill the eggs. Her husband has settled on the estuary moon of Trask in the Kol Iben system,”

“You got all of that from her?” Din replies, remembering how short the lady’s response was back to Peli.

“I paraphrased,” Peli smiled.

Din shook his head, getting back to business, “You don’t happen to know about any Mandalorians on Trask?”

Peli croaks his question to her and the lady croaks back.

“Her husband has seen Mandalorians,”

Din nodded, signalling with his hand for Frog Lady to follow. Din boards the Crest first, noticing Elwyn grip onto the hem of their shirt, their jacket strewn to the floor. But before they could pull the shirt all the way over their head, they noticed the lady following behind him. they yelped in shock and pulled their shirt back down, apologizing profusely to her, sun burn completely forgotten about.

“I’m so sorry! I-I’m Elwyn,” They smiled, holding out their hand for a shake.

The lady croaked back at them, shaking their hand. Elwyn’s face fell, “Sorry, I don’t speak that language.”

“I’ve agreed to take her to Trask with us. Her husband has seen Mandalorians there,”

Elwyn smiled, “Well then let’s go!”

“We have to travel at sub-light,”

And Elwyn’s face fell again. Din apologized before moving up into the cockpit. Elwyn noticed the lady with the egg canister and rushed over to her.

“Let me help you with these,” they said, helping her slip it off her back. They set it down in a snug little corner before guiding the lady up the ladder and into the cockpit, “Your eggs will be fine. Trust me,” It was the least Elwyn could do seeing as they nearly stripped in front of her. Wonderful first impression, really. 

The group sit in the cockpit, the lady taking Elwyn’s usual seat whilst Elwyn stood on the other side of Din. They took off, Din warning of how dicey sub-light travel is. Elwyn gripped tightly to the roof of the cockpit as the ship ascended into space. The lady croaks something at him, making him turn his head to her.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand your language,” he replies, “You don’t know Basic… or Huttese?”

He then spoke something in Huttese, to which Elwyn could only gawk at him. when she didn’t reply, Din only sighed, turning back to face the control panel. Elwyn leaned down to him, “Are there any other secrets up in that head of yours? Like… can you somehow speak dragon?”

“No,”

Elwyn poked their tongue out at him in response. After a couple minutes of just watching space slowly drift by, Elwyn’s eyes said to call it a day or they’d be seeing stars for the next year. They tapped Din on the shoulder a couple times, signalling that they were clocking out for the night and they made their way down into the hanger. They lugged their feet to the bunk and opened it, but soon noticed that the kid’s little hammock was empty. They looked around frantically before hearing a squelching sound. Following the noise, they were met with the sight of the little Womp Rat reaching into the egg canister, egg in his small little hand.

“No no no no!” Elwyn cried as they lunged forward to him to stop him, yet the little monster swallowed the egg as they caught him. They groaned at his little stunt.

“Spit it out!” they scolded. He swallowed. The little shit, “Naughty! You don’t eat other people’s eggs!”

Din moves down into the hanger upon hearing the shouting, wondering what was going on. Elwyn looked to him with a pout on their face, their eyebrows furrowed, “he ate an egg.”

He let out one of his signature heavy sighs before moving to the canister and closing it. Elwyn put him in his bunk and closed it, “Think about what you’ve done.”

They sighed. Maker was it hard to scold that cute little face. Just one slow sweet bat of his big black eyes and he could almost have the whole galaxy at his fingertips. Din gently wrapped them in a hug, pulling them against the cold Beskar armour of his. They sighed pleasantly, revelling in the coldness of the armour on their burnt skin. 

“Remove your shirt, I’ll fix your burns for you,” he says, moving over to where Elwyn put the cream. They did as he said, chucking their shirt to the floor before adjusting their chest compressor slightly. Elwyn turned their back to the man, ready for pure relief of this awful pain. He slipped off one of his gloves. Cool cream met hot skin as Din applied the cream to Elwyn’s shoulders. They sighed, wanting to melt right then and there at the feeling.

“Maker, that feels so much better,” 

“Trask will hopefully be much cooler. You could even go swimming,”

Elwyn shook their head vigorously, “No no no. The ocean scares the living hell out of me.”

Din laughed a little, moving his hands down their left arm slightly. Silence filled the air again between the two. It wasn’t unnatural. Elwyn had gotten used to it and how quiet Din was. Peace and quiet had become their new favourite thing aside from the music that usually drifted from their boombox every once in a while. But ever since they started working around the Mandalorian, they’ve grown rather distant with their dancing and music. He missed watching them look absolutely happy flowing with the music, sometimes singing along with a rather raspy and sultry voice. Maybe it reminded them too much of home life on Nevarro. And if that was the case, Din didn’t mind. 

Soon enough, he was done, and he pulled his hands away, putting his glove back on. Elwyn slipped their shirt back on slowly and picked up their discarded jacket they forgot they’d removed and put it back on. 

“Thanks,” They smiled.

“Anything for you, Cyar’ika,” Din hummed, pulling Elwyn into another gentle hug. They both stood there for a while, just enjoying both of their body heat and their closeness. But Elwyn wishes to be closer. There were a bunch of times where they wished to be closer. And there were some points when they wished to see his face. They wanted to know the man under that helmet. But Elwyn didn’t care if he never showed his face. As long as he was there with them, that was all that mattered. They pulled away from the hug and guided them to their shared bunk beside them, opening it up and crawling inside, the kid already sleeping soundly in his hammock above the bunk. The two of them squish together again, the bunk door closing behind them both.

~~~ 

The alert system blared around the ship, causing all the people onboard to shake awake with a shock. Din leaps out of the bunk and makes his way up into the cockpit. Elwyn soon follows, leaving the kid in the bunk. Along either side of the ship were two New Republic X-wings. Elwyn looks to Din in shock and gulps.

“Razor Crest. Come in Razor Crest,” one of the pilots speak over the radio channel.

Din presses a button to reply, “Is there something wrong?”

“We’ve noticed that your ship’s transponder is not emitting,”

“My ship is pre-Empire surplus. It isn’t required to run a beacon,”

“This sector is now under New Republic jurisdictions. Beacons are required for all ships,”

Din sighs as he shakes his head, “Alright. I’ll get right on it.”

The pilot wishes him a safe journey. Elwyn relaxes, thankful that they all got away from that confrontation.

“One more thing… could you send us a ping?”

Elwyn looked to him in shock. Shit. Elwyn covered the radio speaker and leant over to Din, “We’re kriffed!!” Elwyn hissed.

Din pushed them away quickly so he could reply, “The system isn’t working right now.”

But the pilot is insistent, “We can wait. But if we can’t confirm you’re not Imperial, we’ll have to escort you to Adelphi outpost.

Din looks to Elwyn before sending the ping. Elwyn pursed their lips together in frustration. That will really Kriff them over! They crossed their fingers, hoping that they’d accept the ping. Suddenly, both ships move into attack position, the wings of the ships opening up. 

“Have you recently been in the vicinity of New Republic Correctional Transport, Bothan-Five?”

Oh no. the prison ship. Maker they forgot about that experience with those asshole bounty hunters and that kriffing robot. Elwyn looked to Din, about to say something before he pushes the ship forward quickly, zooming down into the nearest planet. Elwyn gripped onto the back of Din’s chair to keep themselves from crashing into the control panel or even through the windshield. The ship zooms through the atmosphere to the cold icy planet which made Elwyn scrunch their nose up in disgust. First a desert planet now an ice planet. Could they all catch a break for ONCE!!??

The ship sustains heavy damage, pulling rapid manoeuvres in the planet’s clouds and canyons to evade the X-wings. Elwyn grips tighter onto Din’s chair as the ship rocked side to side rapidly.

“Is it a bad time to say that you suck at flying?!” Elwyn shouted over the loud humming of the engine.

“Yes, it is!” Din shouted back, trying to concentrate on getting away. 

“Well, I don’t care! YOU SUCK AT FLYING!!!” they erupted. 

The ship soon zooms through a small crevice before crash landing, sliding to a halt under a rock shelf. The X-wings zoom past, losing sight of the Crest. Elwyn sighed, moving to go down to the hanger.

“Where are you going?” Din asks, turning in his seat to watch them leave.

Elwyn peaks up from the ladder’s opening and sighs, “Going to see if our green bean is ok from your stunts.” And with that, they disappeared into the hanger. Din sighed, preparing to take off again. 

But trouble always seems to get the better hand of him. The cracking of ice echoes through the ship and the Crest vibrates and creaks against the cold sheen of ice. Din rushes to activate the engine of the ship, but the ice was too fast, breaking and bring the ship underneath the ice and into a cave.

~~~ 

Consciousness washes over Din and he wakes with a jolt, the cold leaving frost over his armour and almost freezing him to the control panel. The controls are busted, and he sighs. Turning around he helps the shivering and cold Frog Lady up off the floor and into the co-pilot seat. She croaks at him in fear. Her eggs.

“Don’t worry about your eggs. I’ll find them,” he promises, moving the cockpit door open, “Gotta find some blankets. Keep us warm.”

He looks around noticing how badly the ship was ruined. Until he notices the gaping hole in the side of the ship, freezing cold air flowing through into the ship, Elwyn laying halfway out in the snow. Din rushes quickly towards them, pulling them from the ice quickly. The sudden movement caused Elwyn to jolt awake, gasping at air and panting heavily from the cold. Soon their whole body broke into violent shivering.

“Stay here, I gotta find her eggs,”

He starts picking through the wreckage until he finds the Child under some debris, stuffing his mouth with another egg. Din scoops him up, closing the canister.

“how many did you eat?”

The kid burped in reply. 

“Din,” Elwyn rasped. He turned around upon hearing his name and faced Elwyn. They held out their hand to reveal blood covering their fingers. Din put the kid in the bunk and rushed back to Elwyn, trying to find where the wound was. Their right arm was bruised black, bits of frost hanging around the wound as bits of blood started oozing out of their arm from cuts made by the crash. The colour of the wound gave what its cause was away.

“Frost bite. Really bad frost bite,” Din says, walking over to the first aid kit and approaching Elwyn again. They begun to breathe heavily, trying to move, wincing in pain. Din held them there, trying to steady them.

“Stay still. Let me help you,”

“I-I can’t f-feel m-my a-arm,” they shivered.

“You must have been out here for a while now. Let me help you up,”

He hoisted them up gently into his arms and guided them to the ‘fresher. He grabbed a handtowel and run it under warm water. Elwyn tried pry his arm away from the water.

“D-don’t w-waist the w-water a-all on m-me,”

“I don’t want you losing an arm,”

Elwyn gave up, moving themselves to allow Din to press the warm cloth to their cold skin. It stung, but it would help the blood flow back through the area of the arm. Elwyn clutched tightly at their pants, trying to hold still through the pain. Din noticed their pained expression and he bought his other hand to one of theirs, letting them squeeze it. He pulled the cloth away and noticed the wound turning from black, to purple, to red. 

He rushed to get the first aid kit again and started cleaning it, bandaging it, and wrapping it in some cloth to keep it warm. Elwyn sighed heavily, still feeling a chill in their bones.

“I’ll get you some blankets and a heater. If I can find one that is,”

“You don’t need to do this for me,”

He looked to them, but they didn’t look at him. They hadn’t done that in a while. Ever since they finally got together, they had started looking towards him more and even looking him in the eye. But now they were going back to their old habit.

“Elwyn, let me help you,” 

They shook their head.

“Elwyn…” he said, a sternness setting in his voice that he usually used with the kid.

“J-just leave m-me alone. I-I’m fine. S-save the s-supplies,”

“What’s wrong? You don’t usually act like this,”

“T-talk about i-it l-later,” Elwyn shivered.

Din sighed heavily, helping them up and into the main hanger again. He didn’t care what they said, he didn’t want them in anymore pain than they were already in. He made a quick mental note to find some medication for their wound. Placing them down against the wall of the ship, he dumps a pile of blankets next to them. They could only sigh, pulling the blankets up and over them and drift into a daydream.

~~~ 

“Elwyn,” Din whispered, shaking them awake gently. They opened their eyes slowly as Din sat beside them. He handed them a ration pack. They nodded in thanks, still cold and too drained to speak and slowly begun eating at the small container of food. He pulled them under his cape and nestled them into his side, hopefully giving them some more warmth. The kid finishes his food and waddled over to the couple and climbed on top of their tangled legs before snuggling in between them both. Elwyn let out a weak chuckled as he slowly fell asleep between his adoptive parents. 

The Frog Lady croaked at Din, gesturing towards her eggs. Din shakes his head in response, “I can’t understand you. I recommend you get some sleep.”

He then wrapped his arms around Elwyn again once they finished their meal and drifted off to sleep with his partner and kid. The Frog Lady croaks sadly, taking her blanket from around her shoulders and wrapping it around her eggs.

~~~ 

“Wake up, Mandalorian!” comes a familiar robotic voice.

Din draws his blaster and Elwyn awakes with a shock. That voice. The voice from months ago yet it was still enough to send them into a fit of fear. They could remember the banging metal footsteps approaching the bunk, covering their mouth to hopefully quiet their breathing. The tears all too familiar. Elwyn nestled further into Din, gripping tightly against his body. 

“I’ve bypassed the droid’s security protocols to access its vocabulator in an attempt to communicate,”

“Turn that thing off. It isn’t safe! You’re scaring Elwyn,” Din scolded, “It… hurt them,”

“You want to protect your family. Your loved ones. Then you’ll understand my struggle,” She gestures to her eggs, "The egg batch I carry is the last brood of my life cycle. If we fail to get them to my husband, it will mean the extinction of my family line.”

“Look, the deal is off. We’ll be lucky to survive the night,” He shouted, “Now get away from that thing.”

“I thought honouring one’s promise was part of the Mandalorian code. Perhaps that was just a story for children,”

Elwyn felt him tense under them. They understood where the lady was coming from. Din would do anything for his little family. Elwyn would do anything for their little family too. The lady was desperate. She wanted to save her future children. Her family line. Her species. Din wanted to help his small family just as much as the Frog Lady with her eggs. Elwyn got up slowly, their arm still really sore from the frostbite. Elwyn put their hand on the canister and smiled at the lady.

“I understand how you feel,” Elwyn says, “From one parent to another, we’ll help you get you to your husband.”

Elwyn approached the toolbox picking it up and pulling one of the blankets around their shoulders, ignoring Din’s concerned calls for them. They made their way outside to look at the ship’s damage. Elwyn can wholeheartedly admit that they had no idea how to fix anything. But they’ve fixed their boombox a thousand times… so how different could that be from this? Putting the box down, they pulled out a bunch of tools and tried patching up a small hole. Better to start of small then stuff up a bigger, more important part of the ship. Din soon followed them outside, watching them zap at something. He approaches them, taking the tool from them and taking their hands in his.

“What’s on your mind?” he asks softly.

Elwyn glanced away from him, looking at the snow behind him, “Just a dream I had when I was knocked out into the snow.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Elwyn shook their head, “Not now. Let’s focus on getting us off this junk pile of a planet,” they then smirked slightly before looking up at him finally, “I’ve had my fair share of hot and cold planets.”

Din huffs a small laugh of amusement, happy to see them smiling again at least. A small coo breaks the moment and the two turn to see the kid standing behind them. He points to his left and scurries off.

“Hey. Kid!” Din calls, running after him. Elwyn follows behind. The kid looks off towards a tunnel, footprints trailing off through the snow. Elwyn looks at Din before the three of them take off, Din carrying the Child in his arms. The group soon find a huge cave with a hot spring in the middle with the Frog Lady sitting in it. Her eggs surrounded her, the warm water keeping them warm from the cold. Elwyn sighed, wishing to join her in the nice warm water. They shivered at the thought of the nice warm water on their freezing cold body. 

Din knelt down, starting to gather up her eggs and put them back into the canister, “Don’t wander off. Who knows what could be out here?”

The Frog Lady sighs, pushing the eggs towards him. The Child reaches for an egg in the water, yet Din stops him with a shake of his finger and a stern, no.

Elwyn reaches into the water to help guide the eggs over to Din, trying to not just fall into the water and drift there peacefully. Once the eggs were rounded up, Elwyn moved to bundled up the lady’s clothes, but they hesitated when they heard a loud rumbling sound shake the cave. Elwyn stood up straight to look at what was causing the rumbling, only to see the Child running away from a swarm of…

Baby ice spiders.

Spiders…

Elwyn rushed over to the kid before sprinting back to Din. Maker, why. Why did it have to be spiders? Din closed the canister, and the Frog Lady retrieves her clothes, getting changed quickly. Din pulls the canister over his shoulder, as he watches a huge spider emerge from the cave. Elwyn bit down hard on their lip, trying to stifle a scream that wanted to emerge from their throat. In all their life, they didn’t know spiders could get that big. That was going to haunt their nightmares for a few months now. 

“I-is it a bad time to admit that I have a fear of spiders?”

“Just shut up and start running!” Din shouted. The group took off back through the tunnel, Din shooting his blaster at the smaller ones as best he could as they all fled back to the ship. He reached for his explosive chargers and chucked them at the cave walls and roof, collapsing the walls and trapping the large spider behind them all. 

They all reached the ship finally, but the hull damage allows the spiders to swarm inside. Elwyn pushes the Frog Lady up into the cockpit, allowing Din to fend off the rest of the spiders following them. He tries closing the door to the cockpit, but the number of spiders stopped the doors from shutting. He soon uses his flamethrower to burn the swarming spiders, being able to close the door. He let out a large sigh before moving to the pilot seat, getting ready to take off.

“Strap yourselves in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride,” 

Elwyn grasped onto Din’s chair with one hand and gripped onto the roof of the cockpit with the other as the ship ascended slowly. The ship rattled but it was getting somewhere. But because trouble always finds a way to interfere with the group, they giant spider drops onto the ship, forcing the Crest to crash again. Elwyn bit on their lip as its beady eyes stared into the ship. That’s when it slammed its mouth onto the window, trying to bite through the glass with its many sharp teeth. Elwyn let out a scream as they tripped over their own feet, crashing to the ground. Its legs smash through the window, trying to hit Din. Elwyn pulled out their blaster and fired at its legs. Scratch what they said before. This was going to haunt them for years. 

Blaster fire is then heard outside. The spider flinches before falling on top of the ship. Dead. Blaster fire is still heard outside and Din walks out into the snow. Elwyn looks out of the window as best they could and noticed the two X-wing pilots shooting the remaining spiders. Maker were they happy to see those guys despite them wanting to arrest the group earlier. They re-holstered their weapons after all the tiny spiders were gone.

“We ran the tabs on the Razor Crest. There is an arrest warrant on you for the abduction of prisoner X-Six-Nine-Eleven,” the pilot said, “However, the security records show that you had apprehended three wanted culprits and risked your life in an attempt to protect New Republic lieutenant Davan.”

Din sighed, “Am I arrested?”

“You should be,” The pilot replied. He then looked to the other man before smiling at Din, “but these are trying times.”

Din looked to his ship, gesturing to it, “I could forego the bounty on the prisoners in exchange for help with repairs.”

“How about you fix you transponder, so we don’t have to vaporize your ship next time,”

The two sat back inside their ships and took off, leaving the group with a damaged ship. Din sighed and turned around, only to be bombarded with a big hug by Elwyn. Din hugged back, resting his head on theirs. 

“Let’s get out of here,”

Elwyn nodded, pulling away from him and re-entering the ship. He quickly patched up the ship as best he could before sealing everyone in the cockpit. Elwyn sat down beside Din’s chair, resting their head on his leg as the Crest finally lifted off of the icy planet, leaving for Trask. 

“I’m going to get some rest. I suggest you do the same,” Din said to the Frog Lady, “Wake me up if someone shoots at us. Or that door gets sucked off its rails.”

The Frog Lady croaks nervously at him.

“I’m kidding. If that happened, we’d all be dead,”

Elwyn punched him in the leg at that. He looked down at them at their reaction, “Don’t scare her,” Elwyn hissed.

Din let out a small laugh, “sweet dreams.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If there are any errors, grammar mistakes etc, pleas tell me as I'm always looking to improve with my writing!!!


	3. Soft and Wet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group make it to Trask, and Din and Elwyn both have to overcome some tough to swallow information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title inspired by the song Soft and Wet by Prince.
> 
> Yay!!! A new chapter! This one was fun/tough to write, but I managed to finish it! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

_Elwyn._   
_Elwyn wake up._   
_Its time._   
_Elwyn._   
_Wake up!_

Elwyn jolted awake with a fright, waking up from another nap against Din. They looked up at him as he glances down at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Another dream. It’s the same as before,”

Elwyn adjusted their position, rubbing their hands together. Despite enjoying these past few months with their partner, Elwyn had been having the same dream for a couple nights now. They tried hiding their confusion and constant thinking about what the dream could mean as best they could, but once the voice in their dreams started getting louder, they couldn’t hide their rapid thinking anymore. Din had already caught on.

“I’ve been having this dream for a couple months now. Ever since… Nevarro… when Gideon told me about my parents. When I was unconscious on the ice planet when the Crest crashed, it was the loudest I’ve heard the voice before,”

“The voice?”

“In the dream I’m… waking up and I see a bright yellow light and I can hear a baby crying. Then there’s a silhouette of a woman. She tells me to wake up and… it’s time,”

“Do you know who the woman is?”

“I can’t see her. I’ve never heard her voice before. But I feel as though I know her still,”

There was a pregnant pause as he thought on it. He ran his gloved hand through their white hair, soothing their nerves, “Maybe when we find a Jedi, they might be able to give you some answers.”

Elwyn hummed in reply. Maybe. 

~~~ 

The Razor Crest begins approaching the watery planet of Trask, the ship rumbling and shaking as it got closer to the planet’s atmosphere. The Frog Lady gripped onto her eggs and Elwyn held the Child in their arms. He looks over the controls before noticing a lot of the landing controls are damaged.

“The landing array isn’t responding, and the guidance system is not working,” He breathed, trying not to panic, “I’m going to have to do a manual re-entry. It’s going to be a choppy landing. Let’s hope we have enough fuel to land.”

“that’s if we don’t burn up when we get to the atmosphere,” Elwyn breathed. 

The ship begins descending into Trask’s atmosphere, the underside of the ship begins to burn on re-entry. Elwyn gets up, putting the kid down on the ground of the ship. Din turns his head to the Frog Lady and beckons her over, getting her to hold the lever to slow the landing. She does as he says, but glances back to her eggs. Elwyn sees her looking at the canister and rushes over to it, holding it for her. 

“Razor Crest. Come in Razor Crest. You need to slow down,” The Trask flight control says over the ship’s coms. Din grunts, still letting the ship fall. The flight control woman keeps telling the ship to slow down. Elwyn shuts their eyes tightly as they begin to get dangerously close to the ground before Din engages the rear thrusters, slowing the descent and landing on the waiting landing bay. Elwyn sighs heavily, letting go of the canister as the ship stops. 

However, the landing struts snap under the ship’s shaky entry, causing the Crest to tilt over and into the sea below. 

~~~ 

Elwyn and Din approach a Mon Calamari dock worker as the ship gets lifted back onto the landing bay. The worker looks up at Din with a very unimpressed look.

“Can you fix it?” Din asks, handing him some credits.

“I can make it fly,” The worker replies. 

The Frog Lady looks amongst the crowd, looking very nervous and out of place. Elwyn approached her, the Child following behind them in his pram. They put their hand on her shoulder, looking around for another frog person. That’s when they spotted a green frog man. They smiled, pointing towards him. The lady smiled at Elwyn before bowing her head slightly in thanks before running off to her husband. The couple embrace, celebrating the safe passage of her spawn. Din walks up to Elwyn and notices the Child eyeing the eggs.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you something to eat soon,”

“I wonder if that will be us in the future,” Elwyn sighs to themselves.

“We become frog people?”

Elwyn giggled, “No! that’s not what I-”

“I know what you meant. Asides that, it would be nice,” Din laughed.

The small family approach the couple as they embrace again. The Frog Man notices Din and Elwyn and approaches them. He shakes his hand then Elwyn’s in thanks. 

“I’ve heard that you know where more of my kind are,”

The frog nods and guides the three into an inn. Din thanks them both and they enter further into the inn, taking a seat at a table. Din sighs heavily, looking around the room nervously.

“What is it?” Elwyn asks. 

“I just saw someone out there. I don’t know. It’s nothing,”

A Mon Calamari server approaches the group soon after.

“What will you be ordering today?”

“A bowl of chowder for these two,” Din replies, gesturing to the kid and Elwyn. 

“What will you order? Every person at a table must order,”

Din reaches into his pockets and pulls out Calamari Flan. Elwyn eyed it with wonder, loving how it shone blue and white in the inn’s light.

“How about I buy information. I’m looking for more Mandalorians,”

The server puts out two bowls for Elwyn and the kid and fills it with the chowder and takes the Flan into his possession, “There have been others with Beskar through here.”

The server walks over to a Quarren boatman and discusses something with him. Elwyn takes the broth into both their hands and sips carefully at the warm liquid. That’s when they noticed the broth moving slightly. Overcome with curiosity, they put one finger into it, but pulled it back quickly, feeling something bite at their finger. 

The Child squeaks suddenly and Elwyn looks at him, some kind of small octopus attached to his face. Din pulls a knife out and taps at the thing, sending it sliding back into the broth. Elwyn screws up their face in disgust and puts the chowder down, clearly losing their appetite. 

The Quarren boatman soon approaches the table, bringing Din and Elwyn’s attention away from the Child and the weird chowder.

“I can bring you to others of your kind. They’re only a few hours sailing away, but it’ll cost you,”

~~~ 

The wind rustles through Elwyn’s hair as they breathed in deeply, smelling the fresh smell of sea salt on the air. They leaned over the side of the ship and watched as the boat cut through the water, the water curling over into foam as the boat continued forward. Elwyn smiled at the peacefulness of the ocean. Din stood beside them and the kid, looking out at the ocean too. They turned to him, grinning at him. Din noticed, glancing at them slightly.

“What is it?”

“Just admiring the view,” they smirked. He huffed in amusement at their attempt at flirting and shook his head. the kid cooed at them from his pram.

“I’m so glad we are nowhere near burning hot deserts and ice caves. This is so much nicer,” They said, turning back to look out at the ocean.

One of the Quarren boatsmen approaches them, “Have you ever seen a Mamacore eat? It’s quite a sight. The kid might be interested.”

Elwyn turned to Din and smiled their signature smile, “Can we watch it eat?! Please!!!”

Din nods to them, causing them to bounce in place before skipping over to the opening on the ship where they were preparing to drop a load of fish into. Elwyn looked over into the opening of the ship, watching the dark water lap at the sides. One of the boatmen lower the fish into the water and the ocean begins to bubble, signalling that the Mamacore was surfacing. It quickly devours the fish.

“Don’t get to close. You might fall in!” One of the Quarrens say as he pulls his spear off his back and hits the kid’s cradle into the water. Elwyn cries out yet they soon feel hands on their back, pushing them into the murky waters below. 

They felt the hard jolt of impact as they hit the water, the brisk temperature sending a shock up their spine. Gasping, they tried to resurface, but growing up on a planet that didn’t have water meant that they had no ability to swim. They screamed and tried to breathe, yet it only filled their lungs with water. They felt their lungs burn for air as they sunk lower and lower. They tried to keep consciousness, yet their vision soon faded to black as they watched the light from the boat shrinking away. 

~~~ 

_Elwyn._   
_Elwyn wake up._   
_Its time._   
_You’re not safe here anymore._   
_Elwyn, my dear, wake up._   
_Wake up!_

Elwyn awoke with a jolt, coughing and sputtering as their lungs and throat burned. Din grasped onto them, rubbing his hand up and down their back. They gasped for air, letting it fill their lungs. Could they ever catch a break?

“First, I was sunburnt, then I got frostbite. Now, I almost drowned,” They panted, “What’s next. I get blown away by the wind?”

Din sighed with relief. At least they had enough energy back in them to crack a joke. He stood up, still holding onto Elwyn and the Child. Elwyn looks up at him and notices the water dripping from him.

“What happened to you?”

“I jumped in and tried to save you both,”

Elwyn nods but then notices three new figures standing in front of them. Three Mandalorians covered in sapphire blue armour. They’d found them!

“thank you for helping us,” Din says, “I’ve been trying to find-”

The three of them remove their helmets, causing Din and Elwyn to just stare. Elwyn felt Din tense against them. Even Elwyn was a bit taken aback. Maybe even a bit offended for Din. 

“Where did you get that armour?” He asks through grit teeth.

The middle woman scoffs, “This armour has been in my family for three generations!”

“But you don’t cover your faces. You’re not Mandalorian,”

One of them remarks that he was ‘one of them’. Din looks to Elwyn. Elwyn clenched their hands into a fist as the red-haired woman sighs. They didn’t like her at all.

“I am Bo-Katan of Clan Kryze. I was born on Mandalore and fought in the Great Purge,” she says, “I am the last of my line. You, are a child of the Watch.”

Elwyn gritted their teeth together as she eyes Din up and down. Maker, they really wanted to punch her.

“The Children of the Watch are a cult of religious zealots that broke away from Mandalorian society. Their goal is to re-establish the ancient way,”

Elwyn stomps forward, looking up at Bo-Katan, “Don’t you dare call his way of life a cult.” 

She looked down at them but soon glanced back up at Din, ignoring Elwyn completely. Din pulls them back, pulling them under his cape for warmth.

“There is only one way. It’s the way of the Mandalore,” Din growls. He moved to the side of the ship, carrying the child securely against his chest. Elwyn wrapped their arms around his neck tightly as he took off with his jetpack, all the way back to the mainland. 

The group land, the sun setting over the ocean as they watch the three Mandalorians jetpack away from the ship as it explodes. Din sighs, handing the kid to Elwyn and walking away. Elwyn runs after him, trying to match his long and quick strides.

“Mando,”

He doesn’t respond.

“Mando!”

He looks away from them.

“Din, would you stop sulking and look at me!?” Elwyn shouted.

He slowly turned around to face them, clearly shaken from his encounter with the other Mandalorians. He looked smaller and less powerful like this. It made Elwyn so upset for him. They couldn’t imagine how he was feeling right now. What he was thinking. 

“I’m not a real Mandalorian,”

“What? Yes, you are!”

“No, I’m not. I was just told that I’ve been apart of a cult my entire life. I’m not a true Mandalorian,”

Elwyn huffed, pursing their lips together, “Din-”

“Just stop,”

“Din listen to me! You are the the bravest person I’ve ever met. You do everything to protect me and the kid. And most of all, you are honourable. And honour is a huge thing with Mandalorians. You may have grown up in a so called ‘cult’, but you still honour your way of life, even when you were just told that your way of life is apparently wrong,” Elwyn sighed, gripping onto the Child tighter, “Apart of the Watch or not, you’re still a Mandalorian.”

“but what if choose to remove my helmet?”

“Din, I don’t care if you remove your helmet one day and never put it on again. I don’t care if you never show your face to me. Whatever you choose to do, you’ll still be Mandalorian. And besides, if you take off your helmet one day, you can still be Mandalorian. I mean, those guys take off their helmets! You just won’t be a Child of the Watch anymore,”

He nodded. That’s when he reached for his helmet. Elwyn gasped, taking one of his hands in theirs, stopping him. They shook their head, “Don’t do it if you don’t want to. I’m not making you do it. And those assholes shouldn’t get to you either.”

He nodded, putting his forehead against Elwyn’s, whispering a tiny thank you to them.

~~~ 

Night-time had washed over Trask as Elwyn and Din walked through the streets. The kid snored lightly against Elwyn’s chest, cuddling into the warmth of their chest. The back of Elwyn’s neck pricked with nerves as they felt eyes on them. They looked around and noticed the growing number of Quarren men circling in on the group. One of them step into the light, clearly angry. His lackies soon surrounded them all, trapping them.

“Let us pass,” Din spoke, clearly done with what today has bought onto him.

“You killed my brother. So, in turn, I’ll kill your pet here. Maybe even your pretty friend too,”

Elwyn grasped onto their blaster, but before they could pull it on the Quarren, the three Mandalorians descended in front of the group.

“He didn’t kill your brother. I did,” Bo-Katan responded. Everyone begun firing their blasters at the Quarrens, taking them down in a matter of seconds. Elwyn’s eye twitched in anger upon seeing the three of them. They had everything under control.

“Could I buy you a drink?” She asks, clearly asking Din and not Elwyn. But they took this opportunity to be a bit snarky towards her. They clung onto Din, smiling up at the woman, “I’d love a drink too.”

The two stared at each other, a spark of anger lighting between both of them.

~~~ 

The group gathered around a table at the inn. Elwyn stroked the Child’s head, smiling down at him as he fiddled with a spoon in front of him. the Mandalorians talked about something that Elwyn was clearly not listening to. Why would they need to listen anyway? They weren’t Mandalorian and Bo-Katan probably wouldn’t let them join in on her little plan they were all discussing. 

That’s when they felt eyes boring into the side of their head. they glanced slightly over to the three blue-armoured people. The one with the braids was glaring at Elwyn, slurping up her chowder, a tentacle from the octopus creature slipping into her mouth with one quick slurp. Elwyn grimaced at that and returned their focus to the Child again. But the staring only got worse. Soon, Bo-Katan was staring at them. Elwyn poke their tongue out at her before getting up to leave.

Din grabbed onto their wrist, “where are you going?”

“To find a different place to sit. Clearly, I, the not-Mandalorian, am not welcome at this table,” They snapped, glaring at Bo-Katan. She adjusted herself in her chair, looking away from Elwyn. 

“No, you stay here,” Din replies, pulling Elwyn back down in their seat. He looked to Bo-Katan, “They stay.”

She sighs heavily and Elwyn smirks at her, “Besides. I wasn’t even listening.”

The group continue to discuss their plan and Elwyn returns their gaze back to the Child. Maker did they want to just slap that perfect face of hers. Maybe even punch it once. Or twice. Maybe a lot. There was just something about her that made Elwyn’s blood boil. Maybe it was because of how she called Din’s only way of life a cult. Maybe it was how perfect she just had to be every single second to the way she walked, fought, and even spoke. Kriff, even the way she just stared at things. She just had to be perfect. And that made Elwyn want to just sock her in the face. Elwyn just hoped that she didn’t convince Din to forget about his creed and convert to her way of life as a Mandalorian. And if she did…

Let’s just say Elwyn would do more than punch her in the face.

~~~ 

“You sure you don’t want to come along?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I’ll just slow you guys down anyway,”

Din sighed, “This isn’t about Bo-Katan, is it?”

“Half yes. Half no,” Elwyn smirked, “I don’t have the armour that you guys have. And if I get hurt, I’ll slow you all down. Go on without me. Plus, I don’t want to get blown away by some air current now that I’ve been attacked by three out of the four major nature elements.”

Din laughed as they approached a door. He knocked and it opened to reveal the Frog Lady and Frog Man inside. The Frog Lady croaked at him in greetings.

“Could Elwyn and the kid stay with you for a bit? I have to do something,”

They both nod their heads, the lady taking the Child from Din’s hands. 

“Don’t let Bo-Katan get to you. I don’t trust her,”

“It’s not that you don’t trust her. It’s that you don’t like her,”

“Can we settle it at I both don’t trust her and don’t like her?

“If you’re worried about her getting to me about my creed, that won’t happen,”

Elwyn smiled weakly before planting a small kiss to the side of his helmet, “Stay safe,”

They sat at the table with the couple as Din walked back towards the door, but turned around, pointing towards the Child.

“Be respectful. And mind your manners. You know what I mean,” 

Elwyn smirked at him and waved, watching him leave the house. The Frog Lady held the kid up to the canister, letting him watch the eggs. Elwyn hesitated at her actions towards the kid, afraid that he’d use his magic powers to pull an egg out. But he simply smiled at the eggs as a little baby emerged from one. Elwyn gasped, leaning in closer to get a look at the tiny baby. It swished its little tail as it swam in the canister’s water, looking at all the eggs surrounding it. Elwyn smiled at the couple.

“Congratulations,” 

They both croaked in thanks at them as the two begun to prep themselves to remove the babies from the canister. Elwyn simply sat there, watching them both work to get the hatching babies out. 

It only made Elwyn envy a simple life like theirs. Elwyn would be a stay-at-home parent, occasionally travelling with Din sometimes. They’d adopted some kids, unless Din really wanted to have his own. Or they’d just have the little green bean around. Din would go out and still do bounty work. He’d probably train his kids in self-defence. But they’d all be happy together. It felt nice to think about that. To think about a future with Din and the little Womp Rat. But sometimes there were the bad thoughts that got to Elwyn. Like what if Din died before they even thought about starting a family? What if Elwyn died? What if they split up and both went their separate ways? Things like these would always cloud a happy thought. Things like these made Elwyn always hesitate with decisions. And they hated that. 

They shook their head, coming out of their thoughts before returning their attention back towards the little tadpoles.

~~~ 

The deck officer swallows hard, “Do you copy?”

“Thanks for packing up the weapons nicely. They’ll be useful for a division of Mandalorians,” Bo-Katan replies through the commlink. 

“I’ll hunt you down if you jettison everything,”

She laughs, “We plan to take the entire ship. Put on some tea while you wait.”

Din looks to her as she approaches one of the crates. He did not sign up for this. He marches over to her, anger spilling out of his body.

“This is more than I signed up for,”

She scoffs slightly before smiling at him, “There is something that I need in order to rule Mandalore and the Imperials know where it is. I plan on using this freighter for those battles ahead.”

“You got your weapons. I need to return to my ship soon with the foundling and Elwyn,”

Bo-Katan rolls her eyes at the mention of their name. she laughs, “You shouldn’t trust Elwyn. Their mother was a scum to us during the siege. I thought she could be trusted. But I thought wrong.”

“What do you mean? How do you know about their mother?”

“Elwyn looks just like her. Hard not to connect the dots. Plus, rumour has it she was pregnant with them during the siege. And later on, she was found at the side of the Sith who took over Mandalore,”

Din’s head spun. He was even more confused now. Sith? Mother and enemy to Mandalore? He shook his head, trying to clear it slightly. He swallowed trying to find the right words.

“I don’t care. You got what you wanted. I’m leaving,” He growled.

“If you want to find the Jedi, then you’ll help me take this ship,”

“This wasn’t a part of the deal,”

She smirks up at him, “this is the way,” She says before walking away.

Din had no choice.

~~~ 

Elwyn happily sat before a bowl with a baby tadpole in it. It swam in the water as the Child happily babbled at it. They supported the Child on their lap, clinging onto him so they could pull him back if he tried anything funny. The door soon opened to reveal Din behind it. Happily, Elwyn pried the kid away from the baby frog and congratulated the couple again before standing beside Din.

“Can we have one?” Elwyn asked, gesturing to the tadpole with their head.

“No, we have enough pets,” He replied, bopping the kid on the nose gently. The two thanked the couple again as they exited their house, returning towards the ship. 

“So, how was your trip?”

Din stiffened. He found out more about their mother. But something sparked within him, telling him that he shouldn’t tell Elwyn. He swallowed hard as he stopped, putting his hands on their shoulders.

“I found out more about your mother. Your real mother,”

Elwyn’s eyes widened. The empire was interested in her. That was all Elwyn knew. And now they could find out more!

“Well, tell me! Tell me everything!”

Din gulped, “I don’t think you’ll like it.”

“Tell me Din,”

He sighed, his hands becoming sweaty under his gloves. He stood there silently, trying to collect his thoughts. He had no idea what a Sith was, but coming from Bo-Katan, it didn’t sound very good. And she was very fond of her planet, and just hearing her talk about Elwyn’s mother made Din think that she was a bad person. And he didn’t want to tell Elwyn that. But they insisted. And there wasn’t anyway he could stop them from persisting him with the knowledge. 

“Your mother was involved with the siege on Mandalore. She was pregnant with you at the time,”

“She helped Bo-Katan?”

“No. She… was with the enemy. A Sith,”

Elwyn let that sink in. Sith. They’d heard that word before. In books. Stories. But what did it mean? That’s when it came to them. A Sith was evil. Someone involved in the dark side of the force. Controlled it evilly unlike Jedi. If their mother was with a Sith, then that made…

“My mother was a Sith?”

Din tilted his head, still confused with what that was. Elwyn noticed this before they started rambling, “A Sith is someone who uses the force for evil. They are the enemy to Jedi. If my mother was a Sith then that means I can wield the force. And if both those statements are true then… am I evil?”

Din put his hands to their face, stroking his thumb across their cheek, “Now, we don’t know if your mother was a Sith. Bo-Katan only mentioned there being Sith during the Siege. She could’ve been a Mandalorian, or just a warrior who worked for the Sith.”

Elwyn felt tears prick at their eyes. 

“You’re not evil, Elwyn. You are far from it,” He spoke, resting his forehead against theirs. They stood there for a while, basking in each other’s presence as the cool sea air brushed past them. He moved his hands from their face to pull them into his embrace, cold armour on warm sun kissed skin. If the sounds of crashing waves and the chattering of people weren’t there to fill the silence, Elwyn could have sworn they could hear his heart thumping through through the thick metal of his chest plate.

“I’m not good with words. But I know through and through that you’re not evil,”

Elwyn sighed, snuggling closer to Din.

~~~ 

The port bustled with workers as the group looked up at the Razor Crest. Fishing nets and hooks held parts of the ship together, scrap metal was badly plastered to the holes of the ship. It looked like more of a reck then when it crashed on the ice planet. 

Din looked at the Mon Calamari worker responsible for the shit job on his ship, “I paid you 1,000 credits.”

The alien simply held up a data pad to him and Din sighed heavily, pressing a few buttons on it before boarding the ship. Elwyn took their place in the co-pilot seat with the Child on their lap. Din fusses around with the control panel, moving nets and fishing line out of the way so he could at least start the ship. The Crest soon rumbles to life though, finally taking off. Elwyn sighs, leaning their head back and closing their eyes. The bumpy movements of the ship soon turned to peaceful rocking movements as the ship rises off the port. 

Suddenly a squelching sound and a tiny shriek jolts Elwyn awake and they notice a tiny creamy white tentacled creature in Din’s grasp.

“Pay attention at all times,” Din said, noticing the wide-eyed expression on their face as they held the kid closer to them.

“Did you get any information on the Jedi?”

“Yes, I did. Someone named Ahsoka Tano on Corvus,”

“Well then, lets get going then,” They grinned.

“Strap yourself in. Its going to be a bumpy ride,”

Din hands the kid the creature before he turns to control the ship again. Elwyn smiles down at the little guy as he puts the thing in his mouth, slurping it up with ease.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah! More info on Elwyn's past! And Din and Elwyn connect a little more :3. As always if there are any spelling errors, grammar errors etc, please tell me as I'm always looking to improve my skills as a writer!


	4. Roundabout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group visit some old friends on Nevarro.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title inspired by the song Roundabout by Yes.
> 
> Sorry this chapter took forever! I was writing ahead a bit so I can always come back to previous chapters and edit with a fresh mind, and the chapter I was on after this one was giving me a headache. But now here we are!!! Hope you enjoy!

“Din, he won’t understand,” Elwyn says, standing beside him while he looked through a small opening in the ship. The kid was currently situated inside said opening, trying to help Din repair some of the broken bits of the Crest. 

“No, just give him some time. He’ll get it,” He said, looking up at Elwyn from where he was kneeling.

He turned back to the kid, peering through to look at the little guy holding some wires, “Ok, did you get the wire out? The red wire.”

The kid held up the blue wire.

“No no. No, the red one. Show me the red wire. The red one,”

Elwyn shook their head, listening to Din trying his best with the kid. The kid held up the red wire in the end.

“Yes, good. Now you’re going to plug the red wire where the blue wire goes in the board,”

The kid looked down at the wires, causing Din to repeat his instructions again. The kid looks at the wires as they sit dangerously close together in his hands.

“Don’t let them touch. See where you took the blue one off?”

He looks to the blue wire.

“Now put the red-”

He jams the blue wire into where it was before.

“No, don’t put the blue one back. Put the red one where the blue one was, and but the blue one where the red one was,”

“Din just let me do it,” Elwyn sighed. Despite enjoying this way too much, they needed to get this fixed quickly. Elwyn’s arms were thin enough to get through there. Yet he ignored them, still trying.

“Be careful. They’re oppositely charged so keep them away from each other. Make sure you hold them apart,”

The kid puts them together. A loud zap is heard from inside the opening, causing Elwyn to jolt from their position and kneel down beside Din, worried about what happened to the Child. A puff of smoke billows out of the opening and Din sighs heavily. 

“Are you ok?” he huffs.

The kid coughs once from the smoke and both Elwyn and Din sigh.

“Well,” He says, turning his head to Elwyn, “It was worth a shot.”

~~~ 

Elwyn sat next to Din as they drunk at some soup, the bowl sitting snuggly in both their hands. The kid cooed as he sipped at his soup too, looking up at Din as he pulled his helmet up slightly to sip at his own soup. Elwyn learnt to look away when he ate. Usually, he’d go off into the cockpit or his bunk to eat, but lately he’d been growing more comfortable around the others to eat with them. But even though he was eating around the other two, Elwyn would still look away, despite it being just a sliver of his face that was showing. They would respect his creed no matter what.

“I think we need to visit some friends for repairs,” He says, looking to the kid, “How’d you like to go back to Nevarro?”

Elwyn looks to him and grins, “Wonder how much trouble they’ve been up to while we’ve been gone.”

The three of them looked to their bowls before taking a sip of their soups simultaneously. 

~~~

The Razor Crest lands shakily on the outskirts of Nevarro city. Elwyn springs up from the co-pilot seat and scoops the Child up in their arms as they zoom their way towards the door of the Razor Crest. Din followed swiftly behind them, trying to match their eager speed. He opened the door for them as the bounced up and down where they stood, excited to see their friends again.

“You’ll be ok if you see your parents?”

“Of course. But never mind that now! We get to see Greef and Cara!” Elwyn giggled. He smiled as they watched them approach the lowering door, yet it stopped halfway. But that didn’t stop them as they jumped down to meet Greef and Cara who were approaching with wide smiles. Din jumped down soon after.

“Need some help repairing that bucket of bolts?”

“How much are my credits worth around here?”

Cara approaches Elwyn, wrapping them in a quick hug before petting the kid on his head, “We’ll work something out for you,” she replies, looking to Din.

He nodded. Greef instructs some of his workers to fix his ship. They scurry off and Greef approaches the Child in Elwyn’s arms, gesturing to take him. Elwyn lifts the kid into his arms and he smiles at the green bean. 

“Hope you’ve been taking care of this little one!” he smiles, “Or has he been taking care of you two.”

Elwyn laughs, taking the kid back in their arms as the group walk into the town. The town had crowds and crowds of people, flocking to different trader stalls to purchase vegetables, fruits, clothes, jewellery. Anything. They could hear bargains happening in the distance, loud chattering around them filtering into their ears. Elwyn smiled at the colourful stalls and vibrant personalities walking through the streets, everyone leaking happiness and peace around each corner. It made them happy to see their old sad little town become something so much more.

“The town has changed a lot,” Elwyn breathed, taking in the different vibrant scents coming from some stalls around the town.

“I’m usually busy with clerical work, but Marshal Dune here enforces law and order in the town,” Greef replies. 

“The Razor Crest isn’t doing so good,” Cara says to Din.

“Had a run in with the New Republic,”

Greef scoffs, “They should leave the Outer Rim Territories alone. If the Old Empire couldn’t settle it, the Republic won’t do better,”

The group soon arrive at the old cantina, now turned into a school. A protocol droid stood at the front of a holographic board and asked the kids a question. Elwyn smiled upon seeing the eager students answering the question. It softened their heart to see these young kids getting a proper education. Better than the one Elwyn received when they were younger. 

“Things have changed around here,” Cara smiles. Elwyn looks down at the kid who cooed happily. 

“We’ll leave the Child here,” Greef says to Din.

“No, the kid follows us,” He insists.

“Where we are going, you wouldn’t want to take the Child,”

“He’ll be safe here, don’t worry,” Cara responds, trying to calm Din down.

Greef points at an empty seat and Elwyn nods, walking over to it and putting the kid down gently in the seat. Elwyn crouched down at his level and smiled, playing with the tip of his ear.

“You be good ok. Listen well. I love you,” they smiled, planting a small kiss on his fuzzy head before leaving the class.

They approach a building soon after and walk inside. A Mythrol sat at a desk and tensed upon seeing the Beskar covered man. Elwyn grins at Din, “You seem to know each other.”

“Yeah. He was one of the bounties I’ve collected,” He said coldly.

“He’s bee taking care of my books since he was a pollywog but disappeared one day after some ‘creative accounting’,” Greef huffed, looking at the blue alien.

“Magistrate Karga was generous enough to allow me to work off my debt,” He smiled nervously, eyeing the Mandalorian.

“That’s gonna take 350 years to pay off,” Greef replies, turning towards a table.

“Let me know if he runs off again,” Din grumbles, still eyeing him.

“Oh, trust me. I won’t misbehave. I don’t want to spend any more time in carbonite. I still can’t see through my left eye!”

Elwyn giggles slightly at that until Cara spoke up. The group turn to face her, but something broke Elwyn from their gaze. An all too familiar voice calling their name.

“Elwyn!” 

They turned to who was speaking to notice a rather frail middle-aged woman standing outside the building, blonde hair peaking out from underneath a cowl that covered her head. Elwyn’s face fell upon seeing her and they ran out to her, embracing her in their arms tightly. The sweet smell of flowers wafted through their nose as they buried their face into the crook of her neck, feeling tears breaking from their eyes and cascading down their face.

“Mother? Oh, I missed you,” Elwyn sighed into the woman.

“By the stars, Elwyn, where have you been?” Her mother sobbed, pulling Elwyn away to see their face.

“I’ve been on an incredible adventure. I’ve even met someone,” Elwyn smiled, a blush forming on their cheeks at the mention of Din. She hugged them again, kissing their cheeks. Elwyn giggled, trying to pry away from the affection their mother was showering them in. They’d missed the times when she’d show undying affection to them. They’d miss having their own time together when Elwyn’s father wasn’t around. But as Elwyn grew older and more distant, those times grew shorter till Elwyn locked themselves away from their parents. And now that they’ve been on this trip around the galaxy, they’ve realised just how much they missed their mother. How much they missed her hugs. Her kisses. Just her presence in general. 

“You could have told me! I was worried sick when I tried visiting you to then find out that you were nowhere in town!”

“I’m sorry. The adventure was… rather sudden. But I’m ok!”

Her mother’s hand drifted to the scar on their bare shoulder, gracing over the now even more tanned skin up to the scar on their lip. Her eyes weld up with tears upon seeing the now new wounds on her child.

“What happened to you?”

Elwyn looked to the building and noticed Din staring back. He gave a small nod and Elwyn nodded in return. They smiled back to their mother and hugged them once more.

“Why don’t we catch up. I want to explore everything now that Nevarro has changed,”

~~~ 

“Then there were these giant spiders! And they started swarming the ship!” Elwyn cried, flailing their arms around to hopefully make the story sound more intense. Their mother just sat and listened at the small table they were currently sitting at. She smiled, feeling happy for them and their newfound love of adventure. It made her feel as though she didn’t fail on being a stand in mother for them.

“Then we came here for repairs!” Elwyn finished.

“Was that giant octopus story real?”

“one hundred percent! I almost got eaten!” Elwyn replied. 

She laughed. It was the first time in years Elwyn had heard her laugh so genuinely. They were also surprised to see her walking around town too. Their father would get angry at her for going outside, saying that he would do everything such as get food and money to supply for us. Yet that never happened. Or rarely happened. Elwyn smiled at their mother, happy to see her happy for once.

“Where’s dad? Is he at home?” Elwyn sighed.

Her mother tensed, gripping onto her cup with both hands tightly. She sipped at the drink before clearing her throat.

“Your father died a couple months back,”

Elwyn looked at her with wide eyes. The old man finally dropped, yet… Elwyn felt a rising sadness in their chest. They hit the sides of their head, trying to clear their thoughts. They couldn’t feel sad. He was a horrible person, yet they still felt sorry for the man. Sorry for the awful human that hurt them and their mother. 

“I shouldn’t feel like this. I feel… sad…” Elwyn muttered.

“He was your father. No matter how bad he was of a person, he’s still your-”

“But he isn’t,” Elwyn snapped.

“I’m sorry?” Her mother replied, looking rather shocked at their child’s sudden outburst.

They shook their head, looking back at her, their brow furrowed, “I know you aren’t my real parents. I found out.”

Her mother’s face dropped, her hands sliding under the table to sit at her knees. Elwyn had found out and they obviously wanted the truth. But… the thing is… she didn’t know much about her real parents. Barely anything.

“If you want the truth about your real parents, I’m afraid I can’t tell you,”

“Why not?!”

“I know nothing about them. So did your father. That day was a rather confusing one. But to me, it was the best day of my life. Because I got to take care of you,”

\----- 

_The knock was loud and sharp, echoing the halls of her small house with urgency. She got up, her husband following behind her and demanding she get back to bed. But she ignored him, opening the door to find a hooded figure with a bundle of cloth in her arms._

_“Please take care of my daughter. I’m on the run from the Empire. Keep her safe. Keep her a secret,” The hooded woman said._

_“Why should we listen to you?” the man barked. That’s when they were both handed a hefty bag of credits._

_“Keep her safe from the empire. That is all I’m asking for. I did not wish to pay for my child’s safety, but if that is what it takes, then so be it,” and with that, she was handed the child and the hooded woman took off, her cape whipping in the cold night Nevarro air, the silver of a blade at her side, glinting in the moonlight._

_She closed the door and pulled down the hood of the bundle. And what she saw was a baby. A small sleeping child, tears staining its face and its wispy hair a pure snow white._

\----- 

“The thing that shocked me the most was your hair! I’d never seen a baby with pure white hair!” Her mother added.

Elwyn did wonder about their hair from time to time. How it got like that or if one of their real parents had white hair that just passed down onto them. They may never know.

“Did you see what my mother looked like?”

She shook her head, “But I did see some sort of silver hilt at her belt. I tried looking into it but couldn’t find anything on it.”

A silver hilt? Elwyn shook their head. that didn’t help. But now at least they knew about their real mother and how they ended up on their fake parent’s doorstep. She looked to the woman. She watched people walk by, noticing the aging of her face. Years of putting up with that husband of hers had worn her out. And it made Elwyn sad.

“You could always come with us,” Elwyn suggested.

“No. I’m not fit for adventure, Elwyn. Plus, I wouldn’t want to get in the way of you and your boyfriend,” She winked at them, which was met with an eyeroll from Elwyn, “Speak of your boyfriend. Who is he? Was he in that building with you?”

“Yes, he was actually. You have to meet him sometime,”

As if fate couldn’t have picked a better time for him to show up, the Beskar covered man appeared behind Elwyn, holding the Child in his arms. He called their name and they jumped, not expecting his presence.

“Maker, you scared me!”

“We have to go. The ship is done, but the others are in trouble,”

Elwyn looked to their mother and smiled, “this is him! Don’t worry! You’ll get a proper introduction one day! But I have to go now. I love you, mum.”

They kissed her on the head and hugged her quickly before following Din to the ship, leaving a rather proud mother behind.

"Goodbye my dear. Be safe!"

~~~

The Razor Crest zooms off into the sky, Elwyn gripping the Child tightly to their lap, him cooing at Din as he holds his packet of stolen biscuits. The ship zooms forward and takes out a TIE fighter. Two more remain and the ship chases one up into the atmosphere. The kid cooed happily at the rising feeling in his chest while Elwyn tried to focus all their strength into not squishing the kid in their arms as they tensed at the feeling in their stomach. He fires, and the TIE fighter goes down. Now for the last one. The ship drops, spiralling down towards the remaining enemy ship. Elwyn cries out in fear at the sinking feeling in their stomach and the Child coos happily as he waved his hands in the air. The Crest fires at the ship and the enemies were finished.

Just as the Crest eases, the kid belches and blue vomit from the cookies drools out of his mouth. 

“Ugh! Kid, that’s gross!” Elwyn whined, watching it drip from his mouth and onto their pants.

Din turned to see what they were complaining about and sighed upon seeing the sight of the kid. He picked up the edge of his cape and attempts to wipe at the kid’s mouth.  
“Impressive flying, Mando,” Greef says over the coms, “Do I owe you anything?”

“Repairs. Make it even,” Din replies.

“How about I buy you a drink?”

Din looks to Elwyn before turning back towards the controls, “Some other time. We have some important business to take care of. Have to catch the road before anyone comes after us.”

And with that, the Crest lifts off into space. Elwyn sighs, getting up off the seat and placing the kid down, “I’m going to go clean this up.”

Din hums in reply and Elwyn makes it down towards the ‘fresher. They run the sink and pick up a washcloth, wetting it, and praying that this will be enough to remove the now growing blue stain in their brown pants. 

A quiet knock was heard from the outside of the ‘fresher, making Elwyn turn. Din stood there, walking in, and leaning against the wall. 

“That woman you were talking to. Was she your… fake mother?”

“Yeah. She was. It was nice to see her again,” Elwyn smiled, going back to their work on their pants.

“What did you tell her?”

“Almost everything. I… lied about a lot of the wounds that she saw. I even asked her about my real parents,”

“Did she have any info on them?”

“No. just that my mother hid me with them to keep me safe from the Empire apparently. And that she had a silver hilt at her belt,”

“Did she see her?”

“No. Dank Farrik! This vomit isn’t coming off!”

Din laughed slightly as they scrubbed harder at their pants, finally seeing the liquid coming out. They sighed in relief.

“What were you guys doing?”

“Greef wanted me to help him take down an Imperial base. But it turned out to be a lab and…” he trailed off.

Elwyn looked up at him, eyeing him, “and?”

“Moff Gideon is alive. And they were using the kid’s blood for experiments,”

Elwyn stopped, face contorting into concern. That evil man was alive. He can’t be! And he was using the kid for experiments? That was awful. They shook their head, looking down at the ground, the now faded stain, now wet, forgotten about.

“We won’t let him get the kid, will we, Din?”

“No. We will protect him,”

Elwyn smiled, still worried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOOO!!! We've found out a little more about Elwyn's past! More will be revealed in the next chapter!!! And as always, if there are any spelling errors, grammar mistakes etc, please tell me because I'm always looking to improve as a writer!!!


	5. Gold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group finally make it to Corvus and meet with the Jedi. But aside form that, Elwyn finally gets to know more about their past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title inspired by the song Gold by Prince.
> 
> YAY!!! NEW CHAPTER!!! I hope you enjoy this one because I was so excited to finally connect nearly all of the pieces to Elwyn's past and show it to y'all so I hope you enjoy!!

_Elwyn, my dear._

_Wake up for me!_

_We need to go!_

_Elwyn!_

_They’re here!!_

Elwyn jolted awake in the co-pilot seat, the Child seated in front of them on the control panel and Din piloting the ship. Another dream. Maker was it really loud this time. They rubbed at their forehead slightly, trying to wake up more now that the ship had jolted out of hyperspace. Corvus appeared to be green and forested while the other half was covered in darkness and red scars. whatever had happened here had damaged the planet badly.

“Ok, kid. Get back into your seat,” Din asks him, glancing at him as he flips some switches to begin landing.

The kid only eyes a round ball on one of the control sticks, not listening to Din’s instructions.

“Get back in your seat,” din says again. After he told him again, Elwyn leans forward, taking the Child in their arms. He coos at the contact but nestles against them anyway. He looks to the joystick ball and raises his hand, concentrating on the ball and unscrewing it. Elwyn looked down at him as it shoots into his hands and they smiled, petting him on the head gently.

The Crest lands and Din turns to the two seated behind him.

“Hey, that’s not a toy,” Din scolds, pulling the ball away from the kid and putting it back on the joystick, “Now, you stay here ok?”

Elwyn gets up to follow Din, placing the kid down on their seat and waving goodbye.

The woods were eerie, green fog drifting around it as the black trees twisted up towards the sky, no leaf to be found on any branches. It made Elwyn shiver.

“This place gives me the creeps,”

“Every planet we go to gives you the creeps,”

Elwyn rolled their eyes, “You have to understand though! I mean, just look at this place! You can’t see an inch in front of your nose!!”

A familiar coo is heard from behind the two and they both turn around, noticing the Child walking down the ramp before sitting down, the joystick ball in his hand again. Din walks towards him, scolds him again as he takes the ball from him and puts it in his pocket.

“Now get back into the ship, I’ve never dealt with a Jedi before,”

Elwyn hoists him up in their arms, ignoring Din’s commands, “Come on, he might be able to sense the Jedi.”

He sighed heavily before walking off, “Fine. Just… stick close.”

~~~ 

The group had arrived at a city gate, the Child now safely hidden in a bag under Din’s cloak. The gate loomed menacingly overhead, making Elwyn tense. A man soon appears from above, leaning down to look at the new arrivals. 

“You’re a Mandalorian hunter? Are you associated with the Bounty Hunter’s Guild?”

Din looks to Elwyn, “Yes. I am. And… My partner is too.”

The man nodded before disappearing. The gate soon creaks open, revealing the sad and miserable town behind it.

It was filled with the same eerie mist as the forest, everyone walking around with fear, hunched over and scared. Droids littered the streets with weapons, looking at anyone and everyone passing by them. The town was impoverished and dejected, and it made Elwyn sick. Whoever did this to this town, deserved punishment.

Din approaches a vender, “Excuse me, I’m looking-”

He turns, walking down an alley to his children. Din sighs, walking further into the alleyway, Elwyn following behind.

“Please, I’m looking for-”

“Do not speak to us,” He rasped, sending his children away to safety. 

“We should leave. I don’t like this place one bit,” Elwyn whispered to him. warm leather made contact with their shoulder, causing them to squeak slightly and turn around quickly to see two armoured mercenaries. Din turns, walking in front of Elwyn slightly.

“The Magistrate wishes to speak with you,” one of them says.

The two of them walk towards another gate, noticing the main street was lined with people trapped in electrocution cages, being tortured day in and day out. Elwyn winced, clinging to Din. He noticed it too. The power that leeched off of every guard, every battle droid. It made the two of them sick. But despite the anger and fear that Elwyn held in their mind, Din knew that they both couldn’t help this town. They just needed to find the Jedi and get out.

“Hold it. She only called for the Mandalorian to enter,” One of the guards at the gate says.

“You’ll have to stay here,” Din says, grasping onto Elwyn’s hands.

“No. Please. I hate this place. Don’t leave me out here,” 

“Just stay right here. I’ll be out as quick as I can,”

Elwyn sighed, face turning towards the ground as Din walked inside the gates, the mist gushing out when the large gates slammed shut again.

~~~ 

The group stood outside the gate, looking out towards the forest. The man from the first gate looks down at the Child at Din’s side, eyeing it with confusion.

“What is that thing?”

Din looks to him, “I keep it for luck.”

The man laughs, “You’re going to need plenty of luck where you’re headed.”

Elwyn gulps as Din starts walking off. Elwyn quickly follows after. They breathed in the forest air. It may not have smelt that good, but it was better than smelling the burnt flesh of electrocuted people. 

“What are we doing?” Elwyn asked now that they were away from the town.

“The Magistrate wants me to find the Jedi and kill her. But I’m using this as a means to get the Child to her,” 

“And as a means to get out of that horrible place,” Elwyn muttered.

“I know. It wasn’t nice. But we needed to go in there,”

The woods soon started growing lusher, trees covered with leaves, vines tangling around the ground and trees and rocks littering the forest floor. It was really quiet, making Elwyn’s skin crawl. Din put the kid down on a rock, scanning around the forest.

“Keep your eyes peeled for anything,”

A twig snaps. The group tense, reaching for their weapons to attack. But it turned out to just be a native beast. Elwyn sighed, relaxing again.

Just then, a hooded figure leapt behind Din, glowing white lightsabers coming down on the Beskar covered man. He turns around quickly, hearing the loud hum of the blades and blocks the attacks with his vambraces, pushing the hooded figure back. It was the Jedi.

Elwyn whipped out their gun and crossbow, firing at the figure. She looked towards them and blocked the fire with her weapons, the gunfire bouncing off the blades. Din fires his flamethrower at her, burning the cloak she wore. She tears it off, revealing herself. Distracted with her cloak, he fired his fibercord whip, but she manages to escape by jumping high into the air, bring Din up with her. Elwyn continues to fire at her, yet she continuously blocked the fire. Elwyn growls, having enough of her blocking their attacks. Din uses a nearby branch as a pulley and he detaches the wire, freeing the Jedi. 

He lands on the ground and draws his blaster at her. Elwyn aims it at her too.

“Ahsoka Tano! Bo-Katan sent me!” Din cries, stopping the Jedi and her attack. She looks to the Child before glancing back at Din.

“I hope its about him,” she says, talking about the kid.

“It is, actually,” Elwyn replied, moving to stand beside Din, re-holstering their blasters.

Ahsoka’s face fell upon seeing them. Sadness, relief. Elwyn couldn’t read the emotions that filtered across the Jedi’s face upon seeing them. But she soon settled with a smile.

“you look just like your mother,”

~~~ 

Darkness had filtered over the forest, the only light amongst the trees being a lantern that Ahsoka and the Child sat in front of, looking across at each other. Din and Elwyn stood a distance away from the two, letting them just… sit there. Din sighs, both him and Elwyn approaching the two questioningly. 

“Is he speaking?” Din asks.

“Grogu and I can feel each other’s thoughts,”

Din tilted his head slightly, “Grogu?”

The kid looked up at him upon hearing the name. Elwyn smiled, looking down at the little one as he eyes Din. 

“That’s his name,” Ahsoka replied, looking at the little one.

“Grogu,” Din said again. And the kid whipped his little head around to look back at his dad. 

Elwyn knelt down to his level, petting his little head, “Hey Grogu. Wow, now I finally have a name for you,” Elwyn giggled as he looked at her with his big black eyes.

“He was raised in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant before the Clone Wars and was trained by many Jedi Masters. He was then taken from the Temple and hidden from the Galactic Empire for many years. His memories during those times are filled with fear,” She explained, “I’ve only known of another being like this. A wise Jedi master named Yoda.”

Elwyn smiled, sitting beside the little one on his rock.

“Can he wield the Force?”

“do you mean his floaty powers?” Elwyn replied.

“He draws his powers from the Force. It’s an energy field created by all living things. To wield it takes a good deal of training and discipline,”

“I’ve seen him do things that I can’t explain. I was tasked to bring him to a Jedi,” Din replied.

“The Jedi Order fell a long time ago,”

“The Empire also fell. But it still hunts him. He needs your help,” Din shoots, his voice straining. He wanted him to be kept safe. He wanted Grogu to be with someone who could take care of him properly. 

Ahsoka sighs, “I’ll test him in the morning. But first, I want to see Elwyn.”

They look over to the Togruta woman upon hearing their name. She smiles at them, beckoning them over to sit with her. They get up hesitantly and sit on another rock closest to Ahsoka. She smiles, placing a hand against Elwyn’s cheek. They flinch slightly upon the contact, but ease into it soon after, feeling her warmth and kindness filter through just that one touch. She was wise, caring. But had a troubled past. Elwyn knew it with the way she talked about the Jedi. And Elwyn only wanted to know more.

“You said I looked like my mother. Can you tell me who she is?”

Ahsoka sighed, pulling her hand away to rest under her cloak. 

“I didn’t want to be the one to tell you. But here you are,”

Elwyn looked to her questioningly, “What do you mean? Please, tell me. I want to know about my mother.”

Ahsoka sighed heavily and she looked away. She took a deep breath in and begun her tale.

\----- 

_She ran. Ran to the closest ship she could find. She had escaped and she needed to stay escaped. Before anyone could find her. Her and her unborn child._

_She had spent too long at the side of that Sith. That awful man who slaughtered the ruler of Mandalore to get back at Obi-Wan. She could not forget the moment when she was captured by him, forced to take his side, and convince that the Jedi Council had a spy amongst them. Especially a spy for a presumed dead Sith. It made her blood boil and her skin itch at the thought of being near that evil Zabrak once again. She didn’t want to be close to him anymore. For the closer she got, the closer to the dark side she fell. And it was an awful feeling. The feeling over power, rath, anger. The feeling that you could kill anything if you just put your mind to it. For her, it made her sick, but there was a part in her that revelled in the feeling, wanting to sink further into it and become a force that no one could stop. Half of her wanted it, and she hated it._

_She needed to get out of here. Away from everything. And away from… her…_

_Bo-Katan._

_“wait!!” Ahsoka cried, running after the fleeing woman._

_“Don’t try and stop me Ahsoka! I’m leaving now!”_

_“Please! Tell me what is going on! What was that just now?”_

_She turned around quickly, pulling out her lightsaber, the blade glowing a bright green. Red was starting to appear at the base of the blade. The crystal cracking, dying. Calling out to its wielder to stop. And she could hear it._

_“Stop it Ahsoka. Leave me alone!”_

_“Please! I just want to talk!”_

_She frowned, feeling anger wash over her. But she tried to force it down, the Force flowing through her aggressively. Ahsoka put her lightsabers down on the ground in a sign of peace. She swallowed as she watched her friend still wielding her blade._

_“Please. Talk to me,”_

_She sighed heavily before deactivating the lightsaber and putting it at her belt again, “I’m pregnant,” She said blankly._

_Ahsoka was taken aback upon the news, “But… how? You’re a Jedi! That’s against the code!”_

_“And that’s why I’m running! So the Council doesn’t find out! Besides, the Council thinks I’ve sided with Maul…”_

_Ahsoka approached her slowly then took her hands in her own, “I’m sorry. I... what are you going to do about the child?”_

_“I’ll raise them as best I can and for as long as I can. If I can’t anymore, then I’ll leave them with another family,”_

_Ahsoka nods, squeezing her friend’s hands, “Please stay safe.”_

_“Ahsoka. Can you promise me that if you ever meet my child, could you please tell them everything about me?”_

_“I can’t do that to them. Please don’t make me!”_

_“Please Ahsoka. Promise me.”_

_Ahsoka swallowed, feeling tears well in her eyes before nodding quickly, “I promise.”_

_And with that, she ran off, sprinting towards the closest ship she could find. And before she knew it, she was lifting off, zooming out of the atmosphere of Mandalore. Ahsoka waves, letting the tears she had been holding back for her friend finally fall._

_“Goodbye, Vivan."_

\----- 

“So then when I was born, she left me,”

“She tried keeping you around as much as possible. But the Empire soon found out about you and her. So, she hid you,”

“But… If my mother was a Jedi, then… how come I don’t know how to use the Force?”

\----- 

_She ran quickly through the dark streets of Nevarro. It was the closest planet she could find. And it would be good enough. She looked around, trying to find the couple she saw in a vision once during a meditation session. That’s when she found the house. She nodded before taking a quick turn into an alleyway._

_She pulled down the cloth that covered the baby’s face and smiled, looking at how its tear-stained face rested peacefully after crying itself to sleep. Its wispy read hair peaked out from under the cloth. Just like Vivan’s hair. She swallowed hard before reaching to touch the child’s face, concentrating on the Force. She needed to remove all memory of the Force from the young one. It needed to be safe. They needed to forget about everything. Even their own mother. She soon felt a strong current within herself and she pulled away. She looked down at the baby and noticed its hair had turned a snowy white. Vivan felt her bottom lip quivered, holding back her tears upon seeing the sleeping, yet frowning baby.  
It was time._

\----- 

“You grew out of it. Your mother drained all memories of the force and herself from your mind. Until now,”

“Can I learn again?”

Ahsoka sighed, thinking, “Possibly. It would be difficult though. Force-users are usually trained early on in their life. You are much older now.”

Elwyn nodded. Now they knew. Their mother wasn’t a Sith. She was a Jedi. A Jedi just like Ahsoka. And her name was Vivan. It suited her, despite not knowing what she looked like. But Ahsoka had described her to have deep red hair. Elwyn smiled, trying to imagine them with red hair like their mother’s. Maker, what a strange sight that would be.   
Din kneels down to Elwyn’s level, snapping them out of their thoughts when they felt his hand on their shoulder, “I think we should get some rest. You need it after all this.”

Elwyn nodded, saying a quick goodnight to Ahsoka, and following Din to a nearby tree.

“How do you feel now?” Din asked as he sat down against the trunk.

“Weird. The same… for some reason… I feel ok,” Elwyn replied, sitting down beside him. they looked down at their hands, turning them over and examining them. Callouses rising on their palms, turning rough, yet they were still soft. Long delicate fingers curling in on their palm as they clenched their hands shut. Din watched them before pulling their hands into his, squeezing lightly at them.

“You don’t need to learn if you don’t want to,” He whispered.

“I know. But I doubt I could pick it up again,” Elwyn smiled, leaning their forehead against his helmet.

~~~ 

The sunlight filtered through the planet and the small forest, waking up all the creatures who had slept that night. 

The Jedi led the group to a small clearing, asking Din to put Grogu down on a rock. Elwyn sighed, nervous for his first lesson. Din moves to stand beside his partner, and they found his hand, weaving their fingers through his. Ahsoka leant down and picked up a small stone before drifting it forward towards Grogu with the Force. Elwyn could only watch in awe as she used the mystical power effortlessly. 

“Now, Grogu, pass the stone back to me,” She asks.

He looked at the stone then looked back up at the Jedi.

“He doesn’t understand,” Din interjects.

“No, he does. Now, Grogu, pass the stone back to me,”

He looks to Ahsoka again before dropping the stone with a defeated coo. Ahsoka approaches the tiny creature and takes his hands, leaning her forehead against his.  
“I sense much fear in him. Grogu has kept his abilities hidden in order to survive for so long,” she pulls away from him and looks to the Mandalorian, “He’ll respond to you. Tell him to pass the stone to you.”

Din sighs, walking over to where Ahsoka was standing before and gestured to the stone in front of Grogu, “Ok kid, give me the stone.”

He doesn’t listen. Din sighs heavily, “See? He’s stubborn!”

“Connect with him. he trusts you,” Ahsoka smirks slightly before eyeing Elwyn, “Or I’ll get your partner here to do it for you.”

“No. I can do it,” Din breathed deeply. He looked down at the stone before chucking it away. He moved his hand to one of his pockets and pulled out the joystick ball, “Grogu, you want this?” He leans down to his level, speaking calmly to the child, “You can take it. It’s alright.”

The kid reaches out, feeling the power of the Force flow through him. the joystick ball soon zooms out of his hand and into Grogu’s.

“Good job kid!” Din shouted happily, jumping up from where he squatted and moved over to where the kid sat.

“I’m so proud of you little one!” Elwyn grinned, sitting down beside Din. They rested their head on his shoulder as Grogu smiled happily at the two.

“He’s formed a strong attachment to both of you. I cannot train him,”

Din gets up quickly, turning to face the Jedi, “No. I can’t train him as well as you. I’m not like you.”

“No. I won’t. I’ve seen what fear and anger can do to a fully trained Jedi. I do not want him to go down this path. It may be better to let Grogu’s abilities fade away,”

Elwyn looked to Din and scooped up Grogu, cradling him in their arms. 

“I’ve delayed for too long. I must return to Calodan,”

“I was sent here to kill you. But I do not agree to it,” He replied, “I promise to help you eliminate the Magistrate if you ensure that Grogu is properly trained.”

Ahsoka looks away, deep in thought.

Din sighs, “the magistrate as a small army of guards armed with A350 blaster rifles, two HK-87 assassin droids and a hired gunfighter,” I starts explaining, “I think the gunfighter is an ex-military fighter.”

“Don’t underestimate the Magistrate,” Ahsoka smiles slightly.

Silence looms over them for a few seconds before Din looks back to the Jedi, “Who is the Magistrate? She offered me a staff of pure Beskar to kill you.”

Ahsoka turns to them both, “Her name is Morgan Elsbeth. During the Clone Wars, her people were massacred. She survived and let her anger fuel an industry that built the Imperial Navy. She plundered worlds, destroying them in the process.”

Elwyn lets out a small huff of amusement, “she’s still in business.”

“Did you see any prisoners?” Ahsoka asked.

“Yes. About three strung up outside the inner gate,” 

Elwyn looked to the ground, “they’re hurting those people. It’s awful.”

“We must find a way to free them,” Ahsoka said, squaring her shoulders back as she swung her cape over her shoulders.

“A Mandalorian and a Jedi teaming up?” Din questioned. Elwyn looked up to him and smirked, “They’ll never see it coming.

~~~ 

Darkness soon started creeping over the planet, only a sliver of sunlight dusting the town of Corvus. Ahsoka emerges outside the city gates, her white lightsaber illuminating her in the mist. An alarm blared across the town and blaster fire soon started echoing across the field. She smiled, charging forward and jumping up to the gate, dodging their fire and cutting down several mercenaries with ease. Cutting the bell in half, she lands on the other side of the gate before walking towards the Magistrate, who was now standing outside the gate of her home, her private army surrounding her.

They stand there before she reaches under her cape and chucks one of the Mandalorian’s pauldrons down on the ground, the Beskar ringing slightly as it hit the floor.

“I defeated your bounty hunter,” Ahsoka claimed. She reached under her clock again and pulled out a small bundle of white hair in her hand, “And his partner too.”

A pregnant pause filled the air and the Elsbeth felt rage bubble in her chest upon seeing the Jedi announce such a proclamation. 

“I demand to know the location of your master,” Ahsoka shouts.

Elsbeth growls, “No!” she signalled to her men to kill the Jedi and they moved, opening fire on the Jedi as she leaps onto the nearest roof. She quickly deflects a few blaster bolts before disappearing into the alleys.

“Kill her! And execute the prisoners!” She cries before moving back into the safety of her home.

The echoing sound of a jetpack filtered through the air and the mercenaries look up to see a familiar Beskar covered man grasping onto a equally familiar white haired figure. They both landed onto the ground and they split up, targeting the executioners and swiftly defeating them both.

“Free them!” Din shouts to the older man they saw before. The man nods, heading over the the prisoners and freeing them.

Ahsoka jumps down and re-joins the two and come face to face with the gunfighter. Ahsoka smiles before jumping forward and slicing his blaster. She nods to the other two before jumping over the inner gate to the mansion. 

“Join us. Change sides. The Jedi is deceiving you,” the gunfighter says. Elwyn snarls, gripping onto their blaster tightly.

The loud clanging of Beskar against lightsabers echoed behind the standoff. It continued on for a while before the loud clanging of Beskar sounded against the concrete, signalling Elsbeth’s defeat.

The gunfighter sighs, “I guess that is it. I surrender.”

In an all too quick movement, he reaches for his blaster, yet Din is quicker, firing it at him, killing the man.

“Watch out!” the older man cried. Din looked up to notice a surviving assassin droid, but Elwyn was quicker this time around, shooting the droid dead. 

“I’m quicker,” Elwyn grins at him. Din shakes his head, letting out a small laugh.

~~~ 

The town was safe at last, everyone rejoicing as colour seemed to seep back into the town. The group walk outside of the gates, Ahsoka smiling. Elwyn grinned up at her, still smelling burnt hair on their head.

“How’s your hair?” Ahsoka asked, looking down at the shorter one.

“It’s fine. Is it singed still?” they replied, feeling the ends of their side fringe. Ahsoka let out a tiny giggled before shaking her head, “No, it’s alright now. Sorry about that.”

She turns to Din and pulls out the Beskar spear, “take this as thanks.”

“I can’t-”

“Take it. You’re a Mandalorian who rightfully possess this weapon,” Ahsoka interrupts. He sighs, taking it and swinging it over and onto his back, “where’s the little one?”

Elwyn’s face fell, knowing that it was time to say goodbye soon.

“Back at the ship. We’ll go get him,” Din says, sadness leaking off every word.

~~~ 

Elwyn stays outside as Din goes inside, too sad to see his little face go. All this time they’ve spent together, it was about to come to an end. And Elwyn didn’t want that, despite wanting the little guy to get better at his abilities. It was a parent instinct. A parent instinct that Elwyn didn’t know they had. And Maker did it make Elwyn want to keep the kid around more and raise him as their own. But today was the day that every parent across the galaxy experienced. And that was the day that your kids left the nest. The confines of their parent’s home and love. A dreaded day. But a much moved one too when it is looked back on. Elwyn swallows and looks into the ship slightly, hoping to glance a peak at the kid. Just once more. And they were met with the most precious sight.

Din cradled the little one in his arms, his little green hand clasping onto Din’s thumb sleepily. Din swayed slightly back and forth in a soothing tone. It was at that moment that Elwyn knew, he also didn’t want the kid to go. After months and months of dealing with the womp rat. Cleaning up his mess, singing or rocking him back to sleep, feeding the picky little green bean. After everything, Din couldn’t bare to say goodbye either. 

“You’re like parents to him,” Ahsoka said, appearing behind Elwyn. They turned to look at the Jedi, “I may refuse to train him, but there is a seeing stone on the planet Tython. It’s a place with a strong connection with the Force. Only there, Grogu will be able to decide his own fate. Other Jedi may come looking for him. but there are not very many Jedi left,”

Din approaches her, standing beside Elwyn, the kid still cradled in his arms, “Thank you,” He replies.

“May the Force be with you,” she smiles as Din nods, turning around to re-enter the ship. Elwyn smiles sadly back at the Jedi before wrapping her in a tight hug. The Jedi hugs back, resting her head on top of Elwyn’s white locks. Elwyn could feel her heartbeat against their chest, loving the warm and caring feeling that dripped from her. Despite not knowing the older woman for very long, it felt nice to be able to hug someone who was close with their mother. It made them remember that they were not alone in the wide wide galaxy. It made them feel complete. 

Elwyn pulled back and smiled up at the Jedi, “Will I ever see you again?”

Ahsoka ruffled their hair, “Maybe. But if you ever wish to speak to me, you can try reaching out through the Force.”

Elwyn nodded, hugging her again quickly before waving goodbye, walking back onto the Razor Crest quickly before it took off, leaving Corvus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOO!!! End of chapter. Now onto the next chapter which I love but that's only because I love putting my original characters through hell so.... ye! And as always if there are any spelling errors, grammar mistakes etc, please tell me as I'm always looking to improve as a writer!!!


	6. When Doves Cry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group finally make it to Thython. And when things seem to be looking good, everything goes downhill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title inspired by the song When Doves Cry by Prince.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this chapter! I actually had a lot of fun writing this! Especially the beginning. But yeah, hope you enjoy!!!

Elwyn swayed around the main hanger of the ship, a sultry song drifting through the ship. Din sighed, putting the ship on auto pilot before making his way down to the hanger to find Elwyn dancing. He watched them spin, moving along with the slow love song that played. They even hummed along, shaking their hips to the singer’s words. They turn their head, hearing Din come in. They smiled, holding their hand to Din.

He felt a blush form on his cheeks, “I-I don’t know how to…”

Elwyn giggled, “Don’t worry, I’ll guide you.”

Elwyn took his hands in theirs. They guided one of his hands to their waist as they placed one of theirs on his shoulder. Their remaining hands hooked together and Elwyn begun moving back and forth, slowly get Din used to the movement. He was tense, still hesitant. Before him, was a skilled dancer. A skilled human with the ability to create a dance to any song off the top of their head. a human able to create a melody of movements to a melody of voice and sound. They worked with music hand in hand as much as Din worked with violence hand and hand. They were amazing. But Din wasn’t like them. He was a hunter. A killer. But Elwyn was as stubborn as ever and they would get him to dance.

Elwyn squeezed his shoulder and hand, smiling up at him, “There’s no such thing as two left feet. Everyone can dance. Just in their own way.”

The song ended, but before Din could escape, Elwyn quickly replayed it, returning back to their position in Din’s grasp. And with that, they both glided across the floor of the ship, swaying to the song.

 _“fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars,”_ The song sang.

Elwyn twirled them both around.

_“Let me see what spring is like on Jupitar and Mars,”_

Din smiled under his helmet as Elwyn begun singing along with the song as they both became more and more engrossed in their dancing.

_“In other words, hold my hand,”_

Elwyn let go of his shoulder, raising their joined hands above their heads and they spun before returning their hand to his shoulder again. Din took note of this move.

_“In other words, baby, kiss me,”_

Elwyn moved forward, then backwards as the trumpets sounded in the song before returning to glide along the floor of the ship. Din could feel his muscles loosen, the tenseness leaving his body.

_“Fill my heart with song and let me sing forever more,”_

Din could feel Elwyn radiate with happiness, grinning widely as they looked up at him, a small giggle escaping them upon watching their partner dance with them.

_“you are all I long for, All I worship and adore,”_

Elwyn smiled, “Do you know how to dip?”

“What?”

_“In other words, please be true,”_

“Dip me!” Elwyn hissed, still smiling.

_“In other words, I love you.”_

The song came soon reached its close, but with Din still confused at to what Elwyn was asking of him, Elwyn rolled their eyes and mustered all their strength, pulling the man down and dipping him low to the floor. He clung tightly to them at the sudden movement, but that only caused Elwyn to lose their grip, falling forward and on top of him with a crash.

They laid like that for a while until Din could hear them sobbing into his chest. He sat up on his elbows, looking down at them on his chest.

“Are you alright Elwyn?”

They looked up at him but instead of a crying tear-stained face, he was met with the brightest smile ever as their laughter erupted through the Razor Crest. Their freckled sun-kissed skin curled up at the memory of what just happened, replaying over and over in their head. their uncontrollable giggles made Din laugh too, but he was trying his hardest to stifle it.

“That was your fault,” he said.

Elwyn slapped his Beskar covered chest and snorted, “Yeah, but it was still funny though!”

Their laughter soon died down and they chose to lay there together, warm body pressed against cold Beskar. Elwyn smiled, remembering the pure bliss they got out of that short few moments. Watching him glide across the room with them hand in hand. They could imagine him smiling under the helmet, or maybe even blushing intensely. But Maker, was that the best thing that had ever happened. They looked up to him, smiling again.

“For someone who doesn’t know how to dance, you did pretty good,”

Din scoffed, “That’s only because I had you to help me.”

Elwyn smirked, “True. But you were still good.”

Din huffed in amusement before sitting up again, “We should head up again. Make sure the kid hasn’t touched anything.”

“Grogu,” Elwyn frowned, correcting him.

He nodded, “Yes. Right. Sorry. Grogu.”

~~~ 

The group sit inside the cockpit, the ship approaching the planet Tython. Grogu fiddled with the joystick ball in his hands, eyeing the shining object with wonder. Din huffed, turning to him and holding out his hand.

“Grogu,”

The kid looked up at the mention of his name then noticed his outstretched hand. The kid knew he wanted the ball back, so he clung onto it tighter.

“Come on, give it back,” Din insisted.

The child looked to it then handed it back. Din nodded, pulling his arm back a short distance before nodding to the kid again.

“Ok, come on. Let’s do this again. Take the ball,” Din said.

He reached his little hand out and…

An excellent catch!

“Dank Farrik!” Din hissed, turning around slightly.

The kid cooed, worried that he did something wrong. Elwyn petted him on the head, knowing full well that Din didn’t mean it like that.

“No, kid, it’s alright. You did good!” Din quickly replied, noticing how the kid’s face fell, “I’m impressed. But I promised to help find a Jedi who could train you.”

Grogu looked to his dad with big black eyes.

“You have to promise me you will go with any Jedi who will answer your call. I promised to take you back to your own people,” Din’s voice trailed off slightly at the end, knowing full well he didn’t want to let him go. 

Elwyn smiled sadly, leaning forward, and taking one of Din’s hands and squeezed.

“He’ll be ok, hun. Trust me,”

The ship soon started shaking, signalling that the ship just entered the planet’s atmosphere. It was a lush green planet, sandy coloured rocks littering the place as flowers and tall grass danced in the breeze. A huge hill was the main focal point, large pillar like rocks protruded from the top and circled a flat platform on top of the rocky hill.

“That must be the magic rock the nice lady was talking about,” Din said, “It looks like there’s no suitable area for the ship to land. So why don’t we travel the last stretch with the windows down?”

~~~ 

Elwyn clung to Din’s form with the kid in his arms as they jetpacked the way up onto the hill. The group land and Elwyn shivers, still not used to flying like that.

Upon landing, Elwyn noticed a rocky dome that lied in the centre of the structure, surrounding engraved circles on the ground.

“Does this look… Jedi to you?” He asked the kid.

No response was made so he looked to Elwyn.

“How am I supposed to know?” they replied.

“Your mother was a Jedi,”

“That I hardly remember!”

_Touché._

Din approaches the dome and places Grogu down. He steps back and… nothing happens.

“Are you seeing anything?”

“Din just give him time. He probably doesn’t understand,”

Din waited, looking around before giving into his curiosity and begun circling the dome. He turned on his scanners in his helmet, looking for something.

“Wonder if there’s a… button somewhere…”

Elwyn stifled a laugh, “hun, it’s a rock. There probably won’t be any buttons.”

He ignored them though and continued searching. Elwyn smiled as they watched the kid play with a butterfly. But the peacefulness soon broke when the loud hum of a ship’s engine echoed through the still air. Elwyn turned quickly and caught a glimpse of the ship landing near the Crest. A Slave I. Elwyn had only read about those ships but had never seen one before. Shame that this ship probably belonged to an enemy, because if it wasn’t, they would have loved to look around inside of it. Din jogs slowly up to beside Elwyn watching it land.

“This is bad,” he muttered.

“what? Why?”

“Those ships usually belong to bounty hunters,”

Elwyn gasped before turning around to get Grogu out of here, only to see him surrounded by a force field, meditating a top the stone. Din huffs before trying to move towards it, the force of it pushing him back slowly before he got too far, the thing swinging him back and onto the ground.

“Din!” Elwyn cried, rushing to his side. He grunted as he got up.

“We need to buy him some time. Quickly,”

The two nodded as they ran down the hill towards the hooded figure. They both ducked behind a rock, narrowly escaping blaster fire.

The hooded man gets closer, “I’ve been tracking you, Mandalorian.”

Din slowly gets up, blaster drawn. Elwyn follows suite.

“Are you a Jedi. Or are you after the Child?” He questioned the man.

The hooded man removes his hood, revealing a much older man underneath. Void of hair, and large scars covering half his face. 

“I’m Boba Fett. I’m here for the armour,”

“You’ll have to peel it off my dead body,”

“I’m not here for yours. I’m here for mine. The set you got back on Tatooine,” Fett replied.

“Are you a Mandalorian?”

“I’m just a simple man making my way through the galaxy. Just like my father before me,”

“Have you taken the Creed?”

“I give my allegiance to no one,”

Elwyn could feel slight anger leaking from Din. And he had every right to be. To Elwyn, this man was frustrating. His answers were reasonable, yet so vague at the same time.

“That Beskar belongs to the Mandalorians. It was looted from us before the Great Purge,”

“That armour belonged to my father. And now it belongs to me!” he countered quickly. 

“Let’s shoot this old man down,” Elwyn hissed through gritted teeth.

“I wouldn’t be so cocky with that statement. I have a sharpshooter on the ridge with a locked scope that will unload by the time I’ll hit the ground,”

“I’m wearing Beskar. I can shield Elwyn too,”

“I’ve locked onto the Child. The little one up there on the henge,” Fett shoots back.

Just then, an all too familiar voice speaks up, making the scar on Elwyn’s lip tingle slightly.

“Remember. I don’t miss,”

“Fennec?!” Din shouts. Why was she still alive? How was she still alive? Elwyn let out a deep growl from within their throat upon hearing her voice.

“Why don’t we put down our weapons so we can speak!” Fett said. Elwyn looked to Din as Fennec begun making her way down to Fett. Din sighs, putting his weapons down before nudging Elwyn in the arm to do the same. With a huff, they lowered their weapons. The other two did the same.

“Your jetpack,” Fett spoke.

Din did as Fett said, and he put the jetpack down in front of him.

The group stood there quietly as Fennec removed her helmet, “You’ve looked like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I thought you were dead,” Din replies.

“I wish you were still dead,” Elwyn hissed. Fennec only smirked at them.

“She was left for dead on the sands of Tatooine, as was I. But fate sometimes steps in to rescue to wretched.”

Fennec reached down to her stomach and pulled back a section of her clothing to reveal cybernetics in her lower abdomen, “boba Fett here was my fate. And now I’m at his service.”

The group simply all look at each other, Din and Elwyn still in disbelief over Fennec being alive.

“I demand for my armour to be returned-”

“That goes against the Mandalorian Creed,” Din interrupts.

“That armour was given to me by my father, Jango Fett by his forebears. In exchange for the armour, I promise to guarantee the safety of the Child as well as both of yours,” He reasoned.

“The bounty on that little one’s head has risen significantly. Equivalent of ten suits,”

Fett looked to Fennec and nodded before turning his head back to face the couple, “We’re offering a fair deal given the circumstances.”

The humming of a ship suddenly breaks the group from their conversation, and they look up, watching as it begins to land near the Crest. The group scatter, Din and Elwyn quickly running up the hill and back to Grogu, who was still in the force field. Din looks to Elwyn before trying to pry his way through the field. But like last time, it shoots him back, causing him to land on the stone floor with a loud thud. Elwyn bit their lip before turning towards the field. They had to try. Maybe they could do it. 

They gulped before moving forward, beginning to feel the strain of the force field on their body. Yet it wouldn’t stop them there. They kept pushing, getting further and further.

“Grogu! We need to go!” Elwyn cried over the loud hum of the field, yet Grogu continued to meditate atop the stone.

Elwyn gritted their teeth, feeling their feet sliding against the ground, but they stayed their ground, moving closer. They could almost reach him. they felt their face sting against the push of the force field. Just a little bit…

Their feet gave out and they went flying back, hitting their back against the ground. They wheezed at the sudden contact, grunting as they moved to sit up. Din helped Elwyn up off the ground, dusting them off.

“I got further than you,” They smirked.

“You should try again. You were so close,” Din replied, ignoring their jesting.

“I’d rather just stay up here and protect him until he’s done. That really hurt,” They replied, glancing back at the force field.

On the ground bellow the hill, the ship opened up, dozens of stormtroopers pouring out and getting into attack positions. Fett and Fennec manage to shoot a few down, but the commander soon orders the troops to disperse, causing the two bounty hunters to split up.

Fennec hid behind a couple of rocks, getting her rifle ready before gunning down a flank of troopers with utmost ease. The commander grunts at seeing his men get taken down so easily and orders his remaining men to approach from different directions. As a group of soldiers make it up a small hill, only to find the hooded man waiting for them, Gaderffii stick in hand. He swings it, hitting one of the troopers down. He circles around them, smashing the stick into their heads, sides, anywhere. His strikes were enough to break a bone or three. He finishes them off, whacking a remaining, kneeling troop in the head, damaging the helmet he wore. 

More troopers exit the shuttle, making their way over to the fighting bounty hunters. Fennec guns a few down, but the remaining set up a E-Web blaster cannon. She guns a few down before they fire the weapon, causing her to duck down behind a large rock. They continued firing as her thoughts ran for a solution out of this. Her eyes locked to the rock on front of her and she gave it an experimental push. It wobbled slightly, but it would need more force to get it rolling. She plants her feet on the rock, gripping tightly to the ground and pushed as hard as she could. The rock gave way and begun tumbling downhill, flattening troopers and the blaster canon in its wake. 

Fett jumps down and ambushes the commander with his stick. The two fight, the commander trying to block his swings and pushes, yet the skilled bounty hunter fought off his moves before plunging the Gaderffii stick into his chest. He pants, feeling the energy of the battle weighing down on him. he looks up, noticing a glinting light in the corner of his eye. He turns to see the Crest, the hanger door lowered and inside…

Sat his armour.

Fennec flees from several pursuing troopers, ducking and running through the rocks. She turns, gunning down a few of her pursuers. Another ship enters the planet’s atmosphere, landing near the first one and dispersing more troops. 

Back on the stone, Din huffs, moving towards the force field again. Yet to no avail. Elwyn pulls him up.

“Din, it won’t work. We should be down there with the others!”

He looked to the kid then down below where all the troops gathered. He swallows hard before looking back at the Child.

“We’ll hold them off, you keep doing what you’re doing!” he called to him before making his way down the hill to the fight. 

Elwyn looked back, feeling an uneasiness in their chest. They smiled, “Stay safe.”

They pulled out their weapons, following close behind Din. As if things couldn’t get worse, as soon as the couple left, the force field falls, leaving the Child exhausted as he collapses on the stone.

Fennec fires as best she could at the troopers, more and more closing in on her. But she soon started to become more and more outnumbered by the second, feeling panic rise in her chest as she backed further away.

“We’re here for the Child!” One announces.

A loud whistling sound tears through the air and tiny needle like bullets fire at several troopers, making them drop dead to the ground. A crossbow blaster bolt is fired at another trooper, killing him. Din and Elwyn make their way beside Fennec.

“Why don’t we make amends for the last time if we get out of here alive?” Din says.

“I accept,” Fennec smirks as they three continue firing their weapons at the growing flank of stormtroopers.

As the skirmish rages, a man appears, chipped green Mandalorian armour covering his body as he helps take down a fleet of the troops. He chucks a grenade at some, disorienting them. He takes more down with his blaster, even engaging in hand-to-hand combat. The remaining troopers retreat, but he’s one step ahead as he fires small rockets concealed in his kneepad, killing two. 

The rest flee aboard their ships, departing the atmosphere. And as if the older man didn’t have enough tricks up his sleeves, he fires his jetpack rocket, taking out the engines of one of the shuttles, causing it to collide with the other one.

Elwyn stares at him, mouth hanging open in awe. He turned towards the group and that’s when Elwyn knew, he was their new favourite person in the whole of the galaxy.

“That… was… AWESOME!” they shouted, fist bumping the air.

“You’re good at fighting,” Din says.

“I was aiming for the other one,” Fett replies, looking back up at the falling ships. 

Elwyn went to add onto the conversation before a loud whirring sound grew louder with each second. Quick and unexpected. A large laser blast fired from orbit, coming down to the ground and firing at the Razor Crest. The ship is lit up, pieces of metal flying as everything on board is destroyed in the explosion. 

Elwyn’s expression falls as they watched the flames disappear. Their home. The place they found love. A family. A place that made them feel safe. Was gone. Every memory aboard that ship screamed in sadness upon watching the ship be destroyed, as though it was nothing. To most people, it was just a ship. An old bucket of bolts that just got you from one place to the next. That helped protect you from the dangers of space. But to Elwyn, it wasn’t just a ship. It was their home. Sure Nevarro was the place they grew up on and they technically had a home to live in there, but the Crest was more of a home. A home is with the people. Family. Friends. Lovers. The Crest had everything. When Nevarro had…  
nothing. And now…

It was gone.

“You better get to your ship,” Fennec says to Fett. He nods before rocketing off. Elwyn feels tears prick at the corner of their eyes as they watched the fiery wreckage. Din looks to the skies and spots a light cruiser on his helmet’s scanners.

“The Imperials are here for the Child,” he mutters.

Elwyn looks up and notices several dark shiny forms descending through the clouds and making their way towards the seeing stone. They gasped Grogu’s name before sprinting towards the rock, feeling their legs burn with the unknown speed that carried them. Din and Fennec followed quickly, noticing the figures too, but Elwyn was faster. They manoeuvred over the rocks, leaping with ease up the hill and to the top.

They finally made it to the top to see Grogu in the arms of trooper like droids, black armour glinting in the light. Elwyn rushed forward, hearing Grogu scream towards them as the troopers lifted into the air, bring the child with them.

“GROGU!!!” Elwyn screamed, trying to reach up for him, feeling their body seething with anger as they watched him, their son, get taken away. A rage bubbled in their chest, boiling their blood, and making their fingertips tingle as they reached forward, still screaming his name as they got further away. Elwyn let out another gut-wrenching scream as they fell the floor, the contact with the ground causing the dust and grass around them to push back from the sheer power and emotion their body held. They felt hot tears cascading down their face and they held their head in their hands, sobbing hard and loud. 

“Cyar’ika,”

The name made them jump slightly, feeling his leather gloves make contact with their shoulders. They got up, turning around and wrapping Din in a hug, sobbing into his chest. Din hugged back, looking up at the disappearing troops. 

“They’ve got the baby,” Fennec says through a commlink, “Don’t let them get away.”

“No, call off the attack, I don’t want you to hurt him,” Din quickly says, glancing over to Fennec.

“Call off the attack,” She says into the commlink.

“Alright. I’m gunna do a loose follow. See where they’re headed,” Fett replies. He moves his ship further up into the sky, following to troopers, until he sees the ship they came from. 

“They’re back. The Empire,” Fett says.

“What? But the Outer Rim is under the jurisdiction of the New Republic,” Fennec is shocked. It can’t be.

“This is no spice dream. I’m seeing it with my own two eyes,”

~~~ 

The couple walk amongst the wreckage of the ship. Nothing but burnt grass and dirt left behind from the explosion. Elwyn kneels down, dusting away at something they saw. A piece of their boombox. They lifted the scrap piece up and noticed a song underneath it. They pick the disc up to notice it was the one Din and Elwyn had danced to before all this. Must have been protected by the music player when the ship exploded. They smiled and tucked it into their pocket before getting up. 

Din was looking too and found the joystick ball the kid loved playing with. He put it in his pocket before noticing the Beskar staff Ahsoka handed to him. he picked it up and put it on his back.

Din approached the other two but Elwyn stayed amongst the wreckage, to upset to even move on from what had just happened. They felt another round of tears coming and they let them. They felt a sob rise in their throat and they bit down on their lip, stifling the cry. First their home was destroyed and now their little womp rat was gone. They clenched their fists, feeling that tingling in their fingertips again.

“Cyar’ika,” Din called. Elwyn turned upon hearing the name and they smiled, wiping their tears away. Din motioned for them to come over with his head and they nodded, moving to stand beside their partner.

“We’re going to help you get the Child back,” Fett said.

Elwyn looks up at the older Mandalorian and smiles, feeling their eyes prick with tears again. They stood their ground, trying to not run up to him and give him a hug.

“Thank you,”

~~~

The group travel to Nevarro aboard the Slave I. Elwyn distracted themselves from their sadness by looking around the ship, fascinated and happy that one of their many dreams had come true. Elwyn followed Din into the town and met with Cara.

“Marshal of the New Republic, huh?” Din said, looking down at the badge Cara had on her belt buckle.

Cara let out a huff of amusement before sitting up in her seat, “What do you need?”

“I need you to help me locate someone on the New Republic prison registry,” 

Cara nodded and consulted her computer. Elwyn looks to Din, not knowing his plan.

“I need you to look for a former Imperial sharpshooter named Migs Mayfeld,”

Elwyn tensed upon hearing that name. They felt their blood boil upon remembering his face, his hands ghosting over their body. They shivered.

“He was apprehended near the Dilestri System on a derelict prison ship. He’s serving a 50-year sentence in the Karthon Chop Fields for springing a prisoner himself and being an accessory to the death a New Republic officer. Wow, he’s a real piece of work,” Cara read, looking at his files, “What do you need him for?”

“I need his help to locate Moff Gideon’s light cruiser,” Din replied.

Elwyn quickly looked up to Din and frowned, “Seriously? This guy!? Can’t you find someone else?”

But Elwyn’s words fell on deaf’s ear.

“Look, I’d love to help, but I need to follow the rules now that I’m an official Marshal-”

They have the kid,” Din quickly says. Elwyn could feel a strain in his voice. He really was willing to do anything to get him back. Even if he had to see that bald-headed asshole again. Elwyn sighed, looking down at their hands. They understood what he was feeling. They knew all too well. Din’s ship was like a home to him too yet that was taken from him. And the kid was also taken from him. If Elwyn was where he stood right now, they’d be doing the same thing. They looked to Cara before slamming their hands onto the table.

“Please. Please help us get him back,” They said, “I don’t want to lose him.”

They looked to Din with sad eyes before looking back to Cara.

“We don’t want to lose him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wooooo... sad times boiz!!! Hope you enjoyed it though! And as always, if there are any grammar errors, spelling mistakes etc, please let me know as I'm always looking to improve as a writer.
> 
> Also... next chapter, strap yourselves in!!!


	7. Knights in White Satin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group plan to infiltrate an Imperial base to get the location of Moff Gideon's ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title inspired by the song Nights in White Satin by Moody Blues.
> 
> Hehehe I wrote the title as knight because they do be saving Grogu hehehe. Anyway, all puns (if you want to call it a pun) aside, I think this is my favourite chapter I've written. I'd gush over my favourite parts but that spoil tings or somethin idk. Anyway enjoy!!!

The planet was close as the Slave I landed on the outskirts of the Karthon Chop Fields. This was where Mayfeld was said to be, serving his 50 years sentence. He slaved over a TIE line starfighter, working on dismantling it as he was told to. Maker did he hate here. 

“Inmate 34667, you have been given new instructions,” A New Republic security droid spoke behind him. He rolled his eyes, continuing his work.

“Inmate 34667-”

Alright! I heard you!” He shut of the device he was using and turned to face the droid.

Cara rounds the corner, smiling smugly, “You’ve been taken into my custody.”

“What’s going on?” He asks, looking to Cara and the droid.

His leg shackles soon drop, and he becomes even more confused, “I have a job for you,” Cara replies, walking away.

He’s hesitant at first before the droid threatens him with a stun baton. He flinches before scampering off towards Cara. He asked where she was taking him, yet she didn’t reply, stopping in front of a parked Slave I. He watches as the passengers of the ship walk down the ramp. He notices the newly painted green armour of Boba Fett’s and he almost has a heart attack upon seeing the familiar helmet shape.

“That’s funny. I almost mistook you for someone else,” He breathed a huff of amusement.

Just as things couldn’t get worse, Din walks down the ramp shortly after Fett. His face drops upon seeing the familiar silver Beskar covered man.

“Where’s your friend? Are you both here to kill me?” He asked.

“All you need to know is that I bent a lot of rules to bring you along,” Cara replied for Din.

“They’re on the ship,” Din follows.

“No, I’m right here,” Elwyn speaks up, emerging from behind Din, locking eyes with Mayfeld with a smirk, “Is it just me or did you somehow get even more bald?”

“Good to see you too, sweetheart,” Mayfeld smirked back.

Elwyn’s lip twitched up in anger, their lips almost curling into a snarl upon hearing the nickname, “You don’t get to call me sweetheart.”

“Oh really? Then who does?”

Elwyn almost rushed forward to strike him in the face with their fist, but Din grasped onto their arms, letting them flail in his grasp, “Let me at him!”

“Go back to the ship,” Din commanded softly. Elwyn soon stopped struggling and turned around with a huff, making their way back onto the ship. Mayfeld watched them stomp away, anger fuelling their every step.

“They seem happy,” 

“Could we get back to business?” Fennec spoke up.

“Right. What makes me so lucky for this job?” Mayfeld asked.

Cara rolled her eyes, “It’s because you’re an ex-Imperial.”

“Are you angry with me because I served the enemy?”

“Do you still know your Imperial clearances and protocols?”

Mayfeld becomes speechless, stumbling on his words as the group turn to re-board the ship. He purses his lips together before following them, knowing that these guys were his only ticket offworld. 

~~~ 

Everyone sat in the passenger compartment of the Slave I, discussing the plan to each other.

“We need the coordinates for Moff Gideon’s light cruiser,” Din explains.

“No. Can’t happen. That’s too difficult,” Mayfeld replies.

“Gideon has his kid,” Cara says.

“You mean the little green guy?” Mayfeld asks. Cara nods, “Will helping you guys get me released?”

Cara scoffs, “No. You only get a better view.”

He sits there. Thinking. It would be better than dismantling parts, even if he’d still be serving 50 years. But he’d still be imprisoned. He looked to Din and then noticed Elwyn. They sat in their chair, fiddling with a joystick ball. They looked really upset as they looked at the shiny round object. The kid really meant a lot to both of them.

“Fine. I’ll help. But I cannot get the coordinates without access to an internal Imperial terminal. I think there’s one on the planet Morak,”

“There’s nothing on that planet,” Din says.

“There’s a secret Imperial mining hub. I promise to get the coordinates if you can get me inside,”

The group sit there for a second. A pregnant pause filling the air. Din turns to the control panel in front of the seats, “Set a course for Morak.”

And with that, the Slave I sets a course for the planet.

~~~ 

Fett made his way down into the passenger hanger, unmasked.

“I did an initial scan of the planet and found a structure,”

“That would be the refinery,” Mayfeld speaks up.

“They’re refining rhydonium. That’s highly volatile and explosive. The facility is also armed with anti-aircraft cannons,”

Fennec stands forward, “it’s also protected by a platoon of security forces as well,”

“It may be best to go in quietly before assessing the situation further,” Din replies.

Fett nods, going back up into the cockpit to land the ship. The ship descends into the atmosphere of Morak, flying over lush green forests. Elwyn looked out the windows of the ship in awe at all the green. They just wanted to touch it all, breath it in, relax in the comfort of nature.

Th group finally make their way out of the ship, walking out and taking cover quickly. The group soon sight a passing Imperial juggernaut rolling along a dirt road. Elwyn gulped.

“It should be a quick job once inside. We will need to escape the base as soon as I get the coordinates,”

Fett looked to Mayfeld, “I can perform an aerial extraction from the roof,”

Me and Mayfeld can easily infiltrate the refinery by hijacking a transport and swap places with the drivers in a nearby tunnel,” Cara adds.

“Now here’s the problem,” Mayfeld interjected, “Remnant bases like this are set up and run by ex-Imperial Security Bureau agents, meaning whoever goes in might get scanned. The system flags anyone who shows up on a New Republic register. If that happens, the mission would be compromised, and we could be killed.”

“You seem loyal still to the fallen Empire,”

“I’m hiding nothing,” He quickly replies to her.

“Look, we have no time for fighting,” Din butted in, “Shand can go in Dune’s place.”

Fennec looked at him with wide eyes, “I can’t. I’m wanted by the ISB.”

Din looked to Fett.

“They might recognize my face,” he replies.

“I’ll go on my own,” Mayfeld proposes.

“I don’t trust you. You’ll probably betray us,” She growled, “Let’s just give up on the plan. I’ll return you to the Chop Fields.”

Din tenses, canning something with his helmet. He looks inside one of the passing juggernauts and notices something that could help continue to mission.

“I’ll go,” Din says.

“No. That would be to hard to explain away a guy in Mandalorian armour to the Imperial guards. The only option is to take off your helmet,” Mayfeld replies, “You either trust me with the mission alone or say goodbye to your little green friend.”

Elwyn looks to Din. He had a plan. 

“I’ll be joining you. And my face will stay hidden,”

Elwyn gripped onto his arm, “I’m coming too.”

Din looked down at them, about to interject but they shook their head, “I’m coming too.”

~~~ 

A juggernaut enters a tunnel, Din, Cara and Mayfeld landing on top. Cara jumps inside, knocking out the two pilots quickly. She soon stops the juggernaut, allowing the group the two men to change into the guard’s uniform. Cara looked around, trying to find an extra armour set before Elwyn walks inside the vehicle, covered head to toe in the armour, helmet in hand.

“Where did you find that?” Cara asked her.

Elwyn smiles cheekily and winks, “That’s a secret!”

Hopefully no one would find the body they dumped on the road. Mayfeld stands outside the vehicle, helmet in hand. Cara exits the ship to see Din walking towards the vehicle, adjusting the helmet still on his head.

“I’d say you looked good in the armour, but I’d be lying,” Cara quipped.

“Make sure to take out the rooftop turrets so we can get out of here,” Din replies.

“Will do,”

Din hands the bag filled with his armour to Cara before making her promise to look after. He then approached the vehicle, climbing inside to meet Elwyn. The remaining two put their helmets on, and Elwyn immediately wanted to gag. Maker did it smell awful. Mayfeld soon entered behind Din and sat inside, flipping some controls to get the hulking vehicle to move. Elwyn stood behind Din’s seat, gripping onto the chair tightly as the juggernaut starts moving forward.

“How does it feel wearing the Imperial helmet?” Mayfeld asks, glancing to Din.

Silence.

Mayfeld huffs, taking off the helmet, “Man I can’t properly in this,” he looks to Din, “How’re you going to see inside that helmet?”

Elwyn gripped onto his chair, trying not to snap at him.

The juggernaut exits the tunnel. Phase one complete.

“It feels better when its off,”

the lush green of trees and grass roll past the vehicle. More silence. Until they pass several wrecked juggernauts. Elwyn gulped.

“Juggernaut five? Come in Juggernaut Five. Watch the temperature of the rhydonium cargo and speed. We hit a couple of bumps,”

“Thanks, we’ll be careful,” Mayfeld replied over the coms.

“Don’t worry. As long as we drive steady, we’ll reach the refinery safely,” Din said, mostly reassuring Elwyn more than Mayfeld, seeing as he could feel worry dripping off of them from behind him.

The vehicle enters a village, kids playing on the path and adults going about their business. The kids watch the juggernaut approaching and quickly move off the road, watching as it passed with sad faces.

“The locals see both the Empire and New Republic as invaders,” Mayfeld remarks.

“They have every right to believe that,” Elwyn muttered quietly to themselves.

“Someone somewhere is ruling the galaxy,” Mayfeld sighs. He glances to Din, “Did those people who died in wars fought by Mandalorians have a choice? How are the Mandalorians different from the empire? People born and raised on Mandalore and Alderaan believe in different things. And neither one exists anymore,”

Elwyn turned to him, glaring dagger into the side of his head. They could feel Din go into a state of silence, letting Mayfeld poke at the Beskar covered man.

“Hey! I’m a realist and survivor just like you,” He defended.

“We are nothing alike,” Din snaps.

“Your rules start to change when you get desperate,” Mayfeld replied, “What is it with the rule about not showing your face? Is it because you can’t take off you Mandalorian helmet or because you can’t show your face?”

Din remains silent and Elwyn bites the inside of their cheek.

“Everyone is the same. We have lines we don’t cross until things get messy. As far as I’m concerned, as long as people can make it through their day and sleep at night, they’re fine.”

Elwyn storms forward, blaster pointed at his head, “Just shut up and drive the damn thing.”

Mayfeld glares at them, going to retort until the com spark up again, “this is Juggernaut four. We’re encountering some route interference.”

Shortly after, blaster fire and screams are heard over the coms before an explosion could be seen in the distance. 

“Juggernaut four was been destroyed. Juggernaut five, maintain your speed and course,” The control officer says.

Mayfeld begins panicking, as they received news about juggernaut three being destroyed too. The vehicle passed the burning wreckage and Elwyn gulps. This was going to be risky now. Whatever was happening to the other vehicles, they prayed wouldn’t happen to theirs. 

The juggernaut shakes, footsteps heard on top the vehicle. Mayfeld looks at the camera in front of him and watches as pirates begun boarding, more riding on repulsorlift crafts. 

The group was under attack.

Din gets up, moving to exit to the top of the vehicle, “Keep driving.”

Elwyn follows him, both drawing their blasters. Din shoots one and Elwyn does the same, watching as they fell off the vehicle. 

“Are you seriously shoot that thing while we’re near RHYDONIUM?!” Mayfeld shouted to them. 

one of the pirates attempt to plant a detonator among the rhydonium but Din guns him down, watching as he trips over the side of the vehicle along with the explosive, crashing into the other pirates on the repulsorlift. 

Mayfeld sighed heavily, “Should have just left me in prison.”

More pirates zoom up behind the vehicle. Elwyn guns down three and Din shoots one. But before he could shoot anymore, his blaster clicked. He’d run out of blaster bolts.

“Mando! Use mine!” Elwyn shouted.

“No! cover me as best you can!” Din shouted back.

Din hurls his blaster at one of the pirates before fighting them with a staff one of the pirates had dropped. 

Elwyn attempted to shoot more, but, just like Din, they’d run out of blaster bolts. They grunted, chucking their blaster at one of the pirates and they sprinted forward, shouting profanity as they went. They leaped up onto the pirate’s shoulders before grasping onto his hands and flipping him over the edge of the juggernaut. A second pirate damages Din’s armour, but he manages to throw the pirate off the vehicle with a strangled grunt.

More pirates soon begin approaching the vehicle and Elwyn groaned loudly, “Can they give up!!!”

They sprinted towards the hatch that lowered into the pilot area, “Can you drive faster?”

“Do you want to explode?!” he shouted back.

“I’D RATHER GO UP IN FLAMES THEN GET KILLED BY PIRATES!!!” Elwyn shouted back again.

They returned to Din’s side, Mayfeld not wanting to take a risk, noticing a sensor showing how the ore was heating up. He slowed the juggernaut down, allowing more pirates to catch up.

Elwyn groans and turns their head to where Mayfeld was, “YOU SUCK AT DRIVING!” Elwyn shouted over the roar of the engine.

“ARE WE REALLY HAVING THE CONVERSATION RIGHT NOW?!” he shouted back.

“YES, WE ARE!!!!”

Din fights several pirates off with a spear and Elwyn results to using their fists, getting tired in the constricting confines of the armour. They both knock off a good number of pirates, but a group managed to pin both Din and Elwyn down, allowing one of the other pirates to plant a detonator on the rhydonium before retreating.

The juggernaut is pursued by two more repulsorcrafts. Din breaks free, throwing the pirates that had pinned him down off before helping Elwyn. Elwyn jumps for the explosive, chucking it up to Din who threw it toward the repulsorcrafts. 

But more started appearing. Mayfeld struggled to slow the brakes down as they approached a bridge as the pirates on the approaching repulsorcrafts hurled grenades at them. Din stood his ground as two TIE fighters arrived, gunning down the remaining repulsorcrafts and allowing the juggernaut to cross the bridge and into the base. More stormtroopers move forward and out of the base, advancing on the remaining pirates. If they weren’t around the enemy, Elwyn would’ve hugged Din right then and there, but they were on a mission and had to blend in. 

The juggernaut parks inside the refinery, several stormtroopers and shoretroopers saluting the three of them. The group exit the vehicle and Mayfeld salutes back as they made their way away from the vehicle.

“Never thought I’d be happy to see stormtroopers,” Mayfeld whispered.

Elwyn let out an amused huff, “For once, I actually agree with you.”

The group continued walking through the crowd of cheering miners and troopers as Din and Elwyn followed Mayfeld towards where he believed was the network terminal.  
He walks inside the officers’ mess, a small room with trooper officers sitting around tables, eating, and drinking. Din and Elwyn wait outside for him to do his job. But the man soon returns, fear on his face as he looks away from the mess.

“I recognise an officer in there. Valin Hess. I fear he might recognise me even though I was field operative,” He mutters, “We need to go. We can’t do this.”

“No. We need to do this to get back Grogu,” Din replies. He gulps, “Give me the datastick.”

Elwyn looks to him, their eyes wide with fear, “You’d have to show your face! You can’t do that. Give the stick to me.”

“No. Give me the datastick,” Din insisted.

Elwyn gripped onto his arm, taking off their helmet to look at him properly, “Please.”

Mayfeld gave him the stick and Elwyn let go, watching as the man walked over to the terminal. Elwyn could only look away as he approached it, not wanting to see what happens next. And that’s when they remembered what Mayfeld had said. 

_Your rules start to change when you get desperate._

And that is what Din was. Desperate.

He walks inside the officers’ mess and logs into the network data. The terminal scans his head and… red. He gulps, looking around before shakily raising his hands to his helmet, removing it. The terminal scans again and… all clear. He begins searching for information about Gideon’s light cruiser, searching frantically as he hears footsteps approaching.  
Elwyn sighs, looking towards where Din was, only to see curly brown hair. No helmet. Elwyn’s heart leapt into their throat. He removed his helmet. They looked around and noticed Hess moving towards him. Elwyn turned to Mayfeld, pulling at his arms.

“What is it?”

They pointed, fear covering their expression. Mayfeld could only gulp as Din turned to face Hess. Elwyn turned but quickly looked away upon noticing him looking at the trooper officer, not wanting to break his Creed anymore than he already has.

Mayfeld nodded before pulling Elwyn towards the Mandalorian.

“What’s your TK number?” Hess asked.

Din stuttered, not knowing how to continue.

“Officer TK-593! What are you doing in here? That party’s out there!” Mayfeld smiled, smacking Din on the back, saving him from screwing the mission over. Elwyn just looked forward as they stood beside Mayfeld, swallowing the temptation to look over at Din. 

Mayfeld looks at Hess and smiles, “I’m Imperial Combat Assault Transport Lieutenant TK-111,” He looked to Elwyn, who continued to make eye contact forward, not even looking at Hess, “This rookie here is TK-396.”

Elwyn wanted to glare up at him for calling them a rookie but suppressed the urge. That would screw them over for sure.

“TK-593 here sustained some ear damage when his vessel lost pressure in Taanab,” Mayfeld lied.

“What is your name?” Hess asked, raising his voice mockingly. Elwyn clenched their fists.

Din hesitates but Mayfeld was quicker, “We just calling him Brown Eyes.”

Elwyn’s heart leapt in their throat. He had brown eyes. They quickly shook their head, shaking that thought from their mind. It wasn’t the time to be thinking those things.

“Well, we best be on our way! We need to fill out our TPS reports and recharge power coils,” Mayfeld laughed awkwardly.

Before they could escape further Hess spoke up, “You have not been dismissed.”

Elwyn felt their heart quicken in pace. _He caught us! We’re doomed!!_

“Are you the tank troopers who delivered the rhydonium?” He asked.

The three of them turned to face Hess. Mayfeld responded with a yes sir and Din replied with a very hesitant yes sir. Elwyn nodded but replied the same when Mayfeld nudged their arm. 

Hess approached them all and smiled, “I commend you for successfully delivering the shipment. Let’s have a drink.”

The four of them sat around a table. Elwyn just sat there, drink sitting in both hands as they continued to look forward, only noticing the blur of brown in the corner of their eye.  
Din. Hess looked to Elwyn then to Mayfeld.

“Why doesn’t this one talk?” Hess asked.

Mayfeld looked to them, “they are, uh, selectively mute, sir. They speak through me most of the time.”

Hess nodded in understanding before raising his drink, “What should we toast to?”

Mayfeld thought before eyeing Hess with a newfound anger, “How about… Operation: Cinder?”

Hess huffed, impressed, “You sure know your history!”

“I lived through it on Burnin Konn,”

Elwyn’s eyes widened. He was letting his anger get the better of him. They all needed to get out of there! Not do whatever this was!!

“That was a hard day. I had to make many… unpleasant decisions,” Hess sighed.

Mayfeld clenched his fists, slowly losing his composure, “The entire city along with its inhabitants was destroyed during Operation Cinder, along with my entire division being wiped out. Five to ten thousand people!”

“The lost division are heroes to the Empire!” Hess shot back, a little taken aback by Mayfeld’s sudden rising aggressiveness. Elwyn wished they could do something, but they were too occupied with trying not to look over at Din.

“They’re all dead,” Mayfeld growled.

“It was a small sacrifice for the greater good,”

Elwyn could feel Mayfeld tense beside them. Obviously, what happened during this operation really hit him hard. And they almost felt sorry for him. no… they did feel sorry for him.

“Depends on who you ask,”

“What are you getting at?”

“Was it good for those who perished as well as their families and my comrades?” He shot back, “Civilians died defending their homes and freedom. Was that good for them?”  
Hess lets out a huff of amusement, “My side outlasted and the survivors of Burnin Konn are still eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray while the Empire his growing stronger,” He started, “The rhydonium you delivered is going to create havoc that will make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. I hope that this crisis will cause people to turn to the Empire once again!”

Mayfeld clenched his fists. Now Elwyn could feel anger dripping from him. Din looked to Mayfeld, trying to get it across to him to stop.

“I think that everyone wants order more than freedom. People will welcome us back with open arms!” Hess finishes. He reaches for his cup and raises it in the air.

“To the Empire!”

Mayfeld reaches for his gun and shoots the commander in the chest, killing him. Elwyn gasped, swallowing hard as they watched him fall back. He turns to gun down a shoretrooper and more Imperial officers in the mess hall. Elwyn got up, rushing over to one of the bodies and picking up two guns. One for them and one for Din.

Mayfeld turned to Din, handing him his helmet, “You did what you had to do. I never saw your face.”

Elwyn’s heart slowed down upon hearing those words and they smiled. He wasn’t so bad after all. Despite taunting him about his helmet, he chose to be respectful in the moment. He could have quipped at the Mandalorian. But he chose to keep quiet. 

“Cyar’ika,” Din speaks up, causing Elwyn to turn upon hearing his voice modulated again. Elwyn smiled at the man. They chucked him a gun and they begun gunning down the remaining stormtroopers as they moved to the window, escaping outside. Down below as a massive dam, making Elwyn gulp. One wrong move and you’d be practically hitting concrete instead of calm water they were up that high. 

The group made their way up to the top of the base, waiting for the arrival of the Slave I. Elwyn guns down more coming up from behind them but they were soon caught by the arms by an injured stormtrooper. They struggled against his hold before managing to turn in his grasp and they pushed. Only, he shot across the roof, the same tingling feeling in their fingertips. They looked down at their hands in shock. It couldn’t be…

Did they just use the force?

Din calls Elwyn’s name and they turn to see the Slave I’s ramp lowered and they rushed up to the other two men inside of the ship. They sat down in one of the seats next to Din and they caught their breath, watching the fight below through the window.

Mayfeld picks up a rifle beside him and aims outside of the lowered ramp of the Slave I, destroying a parked juggernaut, igniting the rhydonium inside and engulfing the refinery in an explosion. Elwyn nodded, impressed with his marksmanship. He turned to face the couple, “We all have to sleep at night.”

Suddenly, two TIE fighters begin pursuing the Slave I. Elwyn could only watch as the ramp raised, making the three inside the passenger just sit and watch. Fett sighed, the fighters making him take evasive action. He presses a button on the control panel and drops a seismic charge. 

Elwyn watches as the thing drops near the TIE fighters. A few seconds after its launch, the charge exploded into a blue ball-shape, drawing in all sound from the area before collapsing in onto itself and releasing a shockwave of energy, the delayed sound of the charge reverberating through the air and shaking the ship. Maker was that satisfying to watch as it destroyed the TIE fighters. Elwyn could only watch in awe like a kid in a candy shop upon seeing the explosion. Din noticed their expression and laughed.

“When we get a new ship, can we have it do that?” they asked excitedly.

“We’ll see,” din laughed.

~~~ 

The team reunite at the forest clearing. Din, Cara, Elwyn and Mayfeld stand outside the ship.

“I guess I’m heading back to the scrap heap to finish my sentence,” He sighs.

Din looks at him, now back in his normal attire, “Thank you for helping us.”

Elwyn nodded, smiling up at him.

“Good luck in getting the kid back,” He replied. He looked to Cara, “I’m ready to continue to serve my sentence.”

“I’m impressed by your marksmanship,” Cara smiled.

He laughed awkwardly, “That… wasn’t a part of the plan. Was just trying to unload stuff from my chest.”

Cara sighs, looking away from Mayfeld, “Shame that Mayfeld perished during that explosion. He was a good man by helping us.”

“Yes. It is a shame,” Din sighed, catching onto what Cara was saying.

“Guys… what are you-” He tried saying.

Elwyn wiped an imaginary tear from their eye, “It’s like I can still hear his voice!”

Mayfeld looked at them and nodded, understanding what they were implying, and he slowly started walking away, and Elwyn nodded to him, signalling that he could go. He was now a free man. He ran into the the jungle and away from everything. 

Elwyn smiled up at Din but they noticed how tense he was as he turned away from them quickly, walking back into the ship with Cara. Elwyn’s face dropped before following them both inside, letting the Slave I depart the jungle-covered planet.

~~~ 

Elwyn awoke from their seat, noticing Din walk towards the crew quarters that Fett had inside the ship. Elwyn noticed his body was still tense as he closed the door quickly. They got up, following him inside the room. He sat upon one of the beds, looking down at his hands which were gloveless at the moment. 

“Din,” Elwyn whispered.

He looked up at them quickly before looking back down, clasping his hands together tightly.

“There’s something wrong. What is it?” Elwyn asked again, sitting next to him on the bed.

“You didn’t look,”

Elwyn blinked twice. Was that a bad thing? Or a good thing? From how his voice sounded, they felt as though it was a bad thing, yet they protected his Creed by not looking at him. so, it had to have been a good thing. Elwyn’s head spun.

“Is that a good thing?” they questioned.

“I… I don’t know…” he sighed sadly, “I thought… never mind.”

Elwyn put their hand on his shoulder, “Din. You can tell me. I don’t care what it is. You can tell me.”

He swallowed, looking down at his hands again.

“I thought you saw me… and in turn… you stopped looking at me because…”

He swallowed again.

“I wasn’t good looking…”

Elwyn blushed slightly. That was… unexpected, but it made Elwyn smiled. Maker was that cute.

“Din, I never saw you. Only the back of your head. when I saw that, I made myself not look at you because… of your Creed. I thought… despite having people look at your face, maybe I could make you feel a little better if I didn’t look at you,”

Din looked to Elwyn. Now they were looking down at their hands.

“Everyone seems to not really care about your Creed or choose to poke fun at it. But I choose to respect it. No matter what. Until you say, I will respect it with my life,”

Din felt his heartbeat quicken upon hearing those words. He knew Elwyn knew about his Creed and how much it meant to him, but he didn’t know that they respected it with every fibre of their being. He thought whenever he didn’t join them for a meal, they were huffing and puffing about it. He thought whenever they offered to sleep in the same bed together and he refused they were angry at him for refusing affection. But… they respected it. Just as Din thought they couldn’t love Elwyn any more than he already did.  
He swallowed, raising his hands to his helmet. Elwyn looked at him with wide eyes, putting their hands to his and stopping him.

“You don’t need to do this,”

Din smiled under his helmet, “Let me.” 

Elwyn swallowed and took their hands off of his slowly. He nodded and rose the shiny helmet off of his head. Elwyn’s heart skipped a beat upon seeing his face.

He was… Maker was this man really under that helmet all this time?

They reached forward for his face with shaky hands, but stopped, “Is this… ok?” they asked.

He nodded. They let out a shaky breath and they cupped his face. They let their long thin fingers trace around his face, getting to know the man behind the mask. Their fingers traced along soft, sun kissed skin littered with stubble, noticing the moustache that rested above his pouting lips. Their fingers traced up along the proud curve of his nose, trying to remember all his features for when he put the helmet back on. His brow was in a permanent furrow, brows lined heavily with thick eyebrows. They moved their fingers through his thick curly brown hair, drifting all the way down to cup his strong square jaw and they smiled, watching has Din’s eyes closed, leaning into the touch. He opened his eyes when Elwyn stopped exploring, deep pools of chocolate connecting with bright pools of amber. _Brown eyes_ , Elwyn noted. 

They smiled at the man, feeling tears prick at their eyes. He reached out with his hands, cupping their cheeks too. Their skin was soft, sun kissed like his. Without the helmet on, he could see everything. The fading scar across their lip, their plush lips wet from their tongue. He trailed his fingers up and across their nose, noticing the freckles littering their face, a bump prominent on their nose as he ran his fingers up it. Maker was it nice to finally feel their face. To see it properly. Their brow was set strong, not like the constant furrow that Din had. Their eyebrows were neatly trimmed, a dark grey almost black. And for the moment of truth, he moved his fingers through their hair. It was soft and smooth, just like snow. It curled around his fingers as they closed their eyes at the feeling of his un-gloved hands running through their hair. His hands trailed down to cup their cheeks again, strong jaw similar to Din’s, but a bit more feminine. 

They looked into each other’s eyes more, getting lost in them. Elwyn smiled happily. They were happy. Just for a moment.

“Maker, you are so… pretty…” Elwyn whispered. 

Din felt his heart stop for a second, and his eyebrows rose at the compliment. He felt his body heat up, his cheeks blushing a deep red. Elwyn couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction. The red soon faded upon seeing them laugh. Did he do something wrong? Were they lying about the compliment?

“Stars, you should have seen your face! It was so red!” they giggled.

He looked around nervously, not being able to make eye contact, “Is- is that a bad thing?”

Elwyn gasped, ceasing their laughing, “Goodness no! It was cute…”

Now it was their turn to blush. Din watched them become flustered and he couldn’t help but smile and let out a little laugh at that. Elwyn looked to him. Maker that smile nearly made them drop dead.

They couldn’t take it any longer and they met their lips with his, cupping his cheeks and revelling in the softness of his lips. He grasped onto their waist as they collided with him, but he soon relaxed into the touch, a little confused at the gesture at first. His fingers flexed tightly at their waist as though they’d disappear if he moved from the position or let go of them slightly. He soon found the rhythm of Elwyn’s kiss and he kissed back. Maker did it feel so sweet when he pushed back against their lips, his facial hair brushing ever so slightly on their own skin. The smell of roses and sandalwood crept through his senses. Stars did that suit them. Elwyn’s hands snaked up around his neck to tangle in his curly brown locks, feeling the soft strands slide through their fingers. His scent filled their nose: gunpower, musk mixed in with the sweat of today. They never wanted to let him go. They always wanted to stare into those deep chocolate brown eyes of his and never look away. 

They both soon parted, taking in deep gasps of air. Both Elwyn and Din couldn’t help the smiles that cracked on their faces. Both had never felt this happy. This content. This… peaceful and safe.

“Din… y-your Creed…”

“I’ll make an exception for you…” He whispered.

He got up, stripping of the rest of his armour, and leaving himself in the clothes under the Beskar. He gestured to the bed with his hands as he pulled back the covers. Elwyn smiled happily, moving under the covers with Din.

They snuggled close into his chest, sighing as his warmth enveloped their entire body, his arms snaking around their smaller form, pulling them even closer into his body. The two became a tangle of limbs, Elwyn drawing small circles against his chest, the movement lulling them both closer to sleep.

“Din…” They spoke up.

He only hummed in reply.

“I’m not too sure about the helmet anymore,” Elwyn sighed. 

“Why, what’s wrong with it?” He asked groggily.

Elwyn smiled, letting out a small laugh, “It hides too much of your handsome face.”

Din felt his cheeks heat up again and he buried his face in their hair with a groan of frustration. Elwyn laughed again.

And for a moment…

They were allowed to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY THEY KISSED FINALLY!!! God that ending took me so long to write out because I didn't know what to do for it. I wanted them to have a conversation and be all cute and things but I didn't know if I wanted him to take his helmet off for them or not. I think I did a good thing by making him remove his helmet. Anyway, as always, if there are any grammar errors, spelling mistakes etc, please tell me as I'm always looking to improve as a writer!


	8. Purple Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elwyn and Din finally form a plan with the help of their friends, ready to go and rescue Grogu.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title inspired by the song Purple Rain by Prince.
> 
> TW: panic attack, allusion to a character being raped, allusion to a character partaking in a forced abortion.
> 
> Oh god. Ready your tissues for the ending. Cause this one hurt me. I really enjoyed writing this chapter, so I hope you enjoy reading it! That's basically all I'll say. And with that, enjoy!

_Din stood in front of the hologram projector. He took in a deep breath before activating it._

_“Moff Gideon. You have something I want.”_

_“You may think you have some idea of what you are in possession of, but you do not.”_

_“Soon, he will be back with me.”_

_He means more to me than you will ever know.”_

_“The transmission then cut off.”_

~~~ 

Elwyn’s eyes opened quickly, feeling a strange sensation wash over them. Upon opening their eyes, they were met with a dark sky, snow drifting lazily down towards the ground. They sat up and noticed the everlasting snow-covered ground around them too. Yet despite being alone and in what seemed to be a cold environment, they felt… warm. Safe even. Getting up, they quickly dusted themselves off and tried calling out, yet their voice wouldn’t budge. They tried speaking, clearing their throat, but no sound escaped.

“Elwyn…” a voice whispered in the air.

They whipped around and saw a figure standing behind them. A black cloak shrouded their face and body, making it impossible to determine who was under it. The person let out a low and menacing laugh before latching onto Elwyn’s throat with one hand, tightening their grip as hard as they could. Elwyn choked, wheezed, tried speaking. But nothing happened. 

The figure continued laughing as their other hand drifted to their hood and pulled it back, revealing…

Elwyn.

But they didn’t look right. It was fuzzy… distorted. Their eyes a deep red and filled with hate and anger. Black zigzag patterns ran down the sides of their face and Elwyn could see fangs in their blood curling smile. It was Elwyn but… of so horrific. The fake them snickered, gripping tighter around their throat.

“You’re filled with fear. Anger even. Two clear signs of the Dark Side,” they whispered.

Elwyn could only shake their head.

“You will be just like your mother. A Sith…”

Elwyn let out a strangled scream before feeling their body rise, their soul lightening and their head cloudy. They opened their eyes to now found themselves in a field. Tall grass tickled their body, and the clear blue sky brightened the green of the field. Elwyn rose to their feet and sighed as the cool cold wind whipped at their skin.

Turning around they noticed a statue in the distance. A stone one. Moss crept out of the cracks and leaves adorned the figure in the statue. Elwyn approached it and noticed how it was a statue of the evil Elwyn they saw. They shook their head. This was all a dream. An awful and weird dream. 

“Elwyn… wake up…”

Elwyn looked to see another statue. It was of her mother. Vivan. They just knew it. They could feel it. 

“Elwyn I’m sorry. They are here and we need to go! Please wake up!!”

Elwyn recognised the voice from the dreams they were having. Their mother. It was a memory. A memory before Vivan wiped their memory. Before she left them. 

“I am proud of you my young Padawan,”

Elwyn turned again to see another statue. They approached to find a much younger version of their mother, an alien man in front of her with his hand on her shoulder. His stance was strong and proud, bunches of long tentacles draping down his back from his head.

“Thank you, Master Fisto,”

Elwyn tilted their head up at the statue. That must have been the alien’s name.

“Don’t touch me you monster!!!”

It was their mother’s voice now. The sky darkened as they watched all the statue crumble away, leaving one remaining. It was of her mother, on the floor, hands bound by another man. A Zabrak. He held a lightsaber in his hand as his face held a snarl.

“You do not speak of what has happened!” The statue growled. The Zabrak’s voice. It held so much anger and hate behind it. A Sith. The one that kidnapped their mother.

“I cannot bear to look at it,” Another statue sounded. It was of their mother, crouching down on her knees with a blade pointed at her growing stomach. Elwyn held a hand to their mouth. Their mother didn’t want them. It only made them wonder what had happened to her that made her think of doing such an action towards an unborn child. 

“It reminds me too much of… him…”

Elwyn bit down on their lip as the statue crumbled. Their vision faded, growing splotchy at the corners of their eyes. And before they left their dream state, they could only hear one thing.

“I’m sorry my child,”

~~~ 

Elwyn bolted upright as they breathed heavily. The ship shook as Elwyn crawled their way out of the bed, noticing Din was gone. They groaned lightly as they stretched out their arms. despite being clung to Din for majority of their rest, their body was really sore. Probably what you get for sleeping in your full everyday outfit instead of changing into something better to sleep in.

They walked out to find the ship empty besides Boba piloting and Fennec fiddling around with her guns. the ship finally steadies out and Elwyn looks to the assassin.

“What’s going on?”

She looks up from her gun and smirks, “We’ve docked a shuttle with a… special someone on board. He possibly knows the status of Grogu.”

Elwyn smiles, looking down at their hands, “I hope he’s ok.”

Fennec sighed, putting down her gun and walked over to Elwyn, putting a hand on their shoulder, and giving it a reassuring squeeze, “He’ll be fine. He’s a strong little one.”

Elwyn nodded, moving their hand to hers and squeezing it back. Cara soon storms back inside the ship, sitting down rather angrily and moving her focus to her weapons like Fennec was before. Fennec raised her eyebrows in response to the sudden angry woman and turned to sit back where she was before. Din soon follows behind the angry Cara, a small huff escaping his lips as he hauls someone out from behind him, pushing him down into a seat. Elwyn smiles at the masked man before running over to him and giving him a hug. He returns it quickly, giving a quick Keldabe kiss to them before nodding at them to let him go. Elwyn smiles and pulls away before pointing to the man in the chair.

“Who’s this?”

The man stood up for a second and held out his hand to them, “Dr. Pershing. I-” 

Din pushed him down into his seat again before snapping back a reply, “He is here to make up for hurting the Child.”

Elwyn’s face contorted into a scowl and shot it towards the doctor, their hands curling into fists as they approached the seated man, yet Din grabbed a hold of them and pulled them back.

“Let me at him!” Elwyn hissed.

“No. I know what he’s done, but he’s here to help. Willingly,” He spoke calmly, glancing at the tense doctor. Elwyn huffed before struggling out of Din’s grip and storming off into the crew quarters. Din sighed, glancing at the doctor quickly before following them into the crew quarters. They were pacing, rubbing their hands together as they muttered quietly to themselves. 

Din only stood there as he watched them spiral, not knowing how to act upon their movements. They paced faster, and they begun to pant heavily before stopping in the middle of the room. 

They felt their throat tighten and their chest hurt at every deep breath they tried taking. Their vision blurred, their head pounding whenever they tried focusing on their surroundings. They shivered, feeling hot tears pooling in their eyes and they collapsed onto their knees. Their hands tingled and their feet ached as they finally snapped, feeling their tears fall down their face as they wheezed, trying to get just a little bit of air in their lungs, their chest tightening. They could feel him. Feel Grogu and his pain. He was sleeping, but he was in pain. They were worried for him. Scared for him even. They didn’t know what was coming over them, but they were panicking. Panicking about Grogu. Panicking over whether or not they’d be able to save him. Panicking over if they’d ever get to see him again.

Din’s reflexes soon kicked in upon watching them collapse to the ground. He shut the door, discarding his helmet and he swooped in, pulling them close against him and quietly shushing them, running his gloved fingers through their hair slowly. They pulled tightly against his chest, burying their face into the Beskar, and letting out loud sobs. Their breathing soon evened out and became normal again at the soothing motions of Din’s hand in their hair. They sat like this for a while, his breathing lulling Elwyn not into a sleep, but a peaceful daze. They soon looked up at him, a small smile gracing their lips. He smiled back and let out a huff of amusement.

“There’s that smile,” he muttered.

Elwyn buried their face into his chest again, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

Din shook his head, the hand in their hair falling to their back, drawing calm and lazy circles, “Do not apologize. You are going through a lot of things right now. You should not apologize for that.”

Elwyn pulled away from him slightly to look at him, looking deep into his brown eyes. They took a shaky breath and moved their hands to his hips, squeezing them as their throat tightened again. They begun shaking upon feeling Grogu again, whimpering as he dreamt something awful.

“G-Grogu…” Elwyn whimpered. 

“He’s ok-”

“N-no!” Elwyn cried, gripping tighter onto his hips, their eyes widening as they locked onto Din’s, “I-I can feel him. Feel what he’s feeling…”

“Through the Force?” He asked, still stroking up and down Elwyn’s back.

“I think so… Everything is so confusing…” They groaned, pulling their face into their hands.

Din pulled at their hands away from their face and placed a small kiss on their lips before pulling them into a big hug, nuzzling his face into the crook of their neck, rose and sandalwood filling his nose. His now favourite smell.

“When all this is over, we’ll find someone to help you with your Force powers. Maybe Ahsoka could help. I’ll do anything to help you, cyar’ika,”

Elwyn smiled, sighing peacefully as they relax into his hold, “Thank you.”

~~~ 

The Slave I arrived on a small planet dotted with large refineries. The ship landed amongst a number of other parked ships. A cantina is the main goal of the group walking down the lowered ramp of Boba’s ship.

The cantina falls into silence at seeing Din and Boba enter, Elwyn between them both. Their short stature stuck out like a sore thumb against the two towering Mandalorians, but it made Elwyn look more like an important person with two tough bodyguards either side of them. But it made them feel safe when walking inside the cantina, knowing that two warriors were either side.

The group walk towards two familiar women. Bo-Katan and her partner, Koska Reeves. They all lock eyes with each other, but Elwyn bore holes into Bo-Katan’s head.

“I need your help,” Din says to Bo-Katan.

She scoffed, a small smile forming on her face, “Not all of us Mandalorians are bounty hunters. Some of us serve a higher purpose.”

The last comment she made she eyed Elwyn, making them scowl at the Mandalorian.

“They have the Child,” Din counters.

“You’ll never find him,” She simply says, turning back to her drink.

Boba turns his head to Din, “We don’t need these two.”

Elwyn turned their head to Din and nodded, going to add onto Boba’s comment before Bo-Katan spoke up again.

“You’re not a real Mandalorian,”

“I never was,” He replied back to her. Elwyn felt their hands curl into a fist before they let out a growl, “Watch your mouth princess,” they hissed.

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Reeves growls at Elwyn.

“Make me,”

Reeves moved to get up, but Bo-Katan quickly stopped her with a hand to Reeves’s arm, making the Mandalorian sit back down in her seat, “Save it for the Imps,” Bo-Katan muttered to the other female.

“We have Gideon’s coordinates. He had a light cruiser which could help you regain Mandalore,”

Fett scoffs, “The Empire reduced Mandalore to glass.”

Bo-Katan scowled, locking eyes with Fett, “You’re a disgrace to your armour.”

“This armour belongs to my father!”

Bo-Katan scoffs, “You mean your donor?” She moves her body to face him more, “You’re just a clone. I’ve heard your voice thousands of times.”

Boba walks forward, ready to fight, “It may be the last voice you hear.”

Reeves leaps up, swinging a fist at him and the fight begins. Elwyn stepped away quickly, putting their fists up and ready to strike if she moved close enough to them. Bo-Katan gets up quickly as Boba was flung across the room and into the table the two Mandalorian woman sat at before.

“Alright, both of you stop!” Bo-Katan shouted. The two stopped, relaxing upon Bo-Katan’s demand. Boba dusted himself off as he moved away from the women.

“I’ll help you take Gideon’s ship and the Darksaber, which I will then use to retake Mandalore,” She looks to Din, “Maybe you should reconsider joining our efforts?”

Elwyn looked to Din, hating how he just stared at her, not moving, or showing a sign of emotion towards her last comment. They knew that he wouldn’t. he was too focused on helping the Child. Plus, he wouldn’t leave Elwyn. If he chose to come with Bo-Katan, he’d find a way to make Bo-Katan allow Elwyn to come with him, knowing what the woman thought of his partner.

Elwyn huffs, glaring at the woman again before walking out of the Cantina.

~~~ 

Elwyn sits furthest away from the group, listening in on Bo-Katan’s briefing of the plan to board the cruiser. They rubbed their hands together, feeling Grogu’s feelings through the Force, trying to focus on it, see if he was trying to communicate. That’s when they heard a small voice, soft and sweet, yet a bit hazy from Elwyn’s novice practice of the Force. But upon hearing the singular word uttered through their mind, they knew the voice was from Grogu. 

And all he uttered was…

Help.

“Elwyn, are you listening?” Bo-Katan snapped, causing everyone to look to Elwyn. They looked up, shock on their face before nodding and whispering a small yes.

She nods back and turns to the hologram of the cruiser, starting her briefing again. 

“At the height of the Empire, such a ship would have carried hundreds of troopers, but it only now holds a small fraction of that,”

“That’s misleading,” Dr. Pershing speaks up. Elwyn looked to the doctor as he swallowed, “Gideon has a platoon of dark troopers aboard the vessel.” 

“How many troopers are in the suits?” Din asks the doctor.

He shakes his head, getting up to approach the map, “They’re an all-droid third-generation model,” He makes the map show the interior of the ship, pointing to a room, “This is where the dark troopers are housed. In a cargo bay right next to the brig where the Child is being held.”

Bo-Katan nods, thinking deeply before pointing to the map again, “Here’s the plan, we’ll send a distress call from the imperial shuttle Pershing was on and emergency land into the cruiser’s launch tube, blocking any potential interceptors,” She explained. She turned to look to the group, “Me, Reeves, Fennec, Elwyn and Cara will attack the bridge, misdirecting Gideon’s forces from Mando, who will head for the brig to rescue the Child.”

Elwyn stands up, confusion spreading across their face, “Wait! I’m going with Mando!”

“No. The Child is Mando’s mission. You’re coming with us,”

Elwyn felt tears prick at their eyes, biting their lip to suppress them, “I need to be there with him! I… I felt him calling to me. Through the Force…”

Bo-Katan froze, her gaze snapping to the smaller person, “You are letting Mando go on his own. That’s the end of the briefing.”

She turned off the hologram of the cruiser and walked away, getting herself ready. Elwyn scowled before following her into a smaller room, closing the door behind themselves, making Bo-Katan jump slightly due to not expecting someone to follow her.

“What is your deal with me? Are you trying to separate me from Mando?” Elwyn snapped.

Bo-Katan scoffed, “Us Mandalorians are enemies with the Jedi.”

“I am not a Jedi. Just because I have some grasp with the Force, doesn’t mean I am one!”

Bo-Katan scoffed, “Your mother was a Jedi. It only makes sense that you’re one too.”

“But I’ve never trained in the Jedi way. I have no lightsaber! I am not a Jedi!”

Bo-Katan shook her head, turning to continue what she was planning to do before. Elwyn scowled, their hands curling into tight fists.

“Why do you hate me so much?! Why do you hate my mother so much?! What did she do to you that could make you hate me so much! Kriff, Just because I came out of my mother doesn’t make me an exact copy of-”

“I loved your mother!” Bo-Katan snapped, breathing heavily. She swallowed hard before looking away from Elwyn, “Your mother was my friend. And seeing her next to that Sith made me realise how much she lied to me. And she did nothing to stop Maul killing my sister. The Duchess of Mandalore.”

Elwyn could only stand there, watching as the tough woman before her came undone so quickly. Elwyn felt her arm move on its own, reaching slightly for the woman but she pulled it back quickly, letting her catch her breath before she continued.

“You say you’re not like your mother, but you have no idea how wrong you are. You’re both stubborn, caring towards the ones you love. And a powerful fighter in the things you believe in. You are so much like your mother and… it hurts me,” she muttered.

Elwyn pulls their hands close to their chest, feeling their heart beating against their chest, “I… I’m sorry…”

The two stay quiet for a while, just standing there with the silence hanging over them heavily. Elwyn looked to Bo-Katan, yet she still made hard eye contact with the floor. She swallowed before letting out sigh.

“Who was my father?”

Bo-Katan tensed. That wasn’t something they wanted to say. She thought back to the day she found her mother on a remote planet, round and heavy with Elwyn. She was furious to see Vivan, but the ex-Jedi collapsed onto the ground, months of pent-up grief and sadness pour out of her upon seeing her past friend standing before her. It broke Bo-Katan to see her so broken that she couldn’t help but fall to the floor with her, hugging her close until Vivan stopped crying. Vivan then told her everything. About the Sith. About her pregnancy. Everything. Bo-Katan listened, but it only made her opinion on her friend worsen. She soon left afterwards, vowing to never see her friend again. Bo-Katan looked to Elwyn and could only see Vivan in her child. She knew she couldn’t refuse to tell them the answer to their question. Them being stubborn and all.

“I know you’ll persist if I refuse. But it isn’t a nice answer. Something you wouldn’t want to hear,”

Elwyn walked closer to her, taking her hands in theirs, “I’m ready. You can tell me,” They looked to the ground before letting out a tiny laugh, “I’ve been through worse.”

Bo-Katan didn’t laugh though. She swallowed deeply before squeezing Elwyn’s hands.

“Your father was the Sith that captured your mother.”

Elwyn pulled away from Bo-Katan, letting it sink into their mind. Their dream that night made a lot of sense to them now. And, despite knowing how they should have felt: sad and miserable due to finally hearing the truth, they somewhat felt ok with that answer, something in the back of their mind saying that was somewhat predictable. They were also, somewhat ok with that answer. 

“Oh,” was all Elwyn could say.

“I’m sorry,”

“No. I’m… actually ok with that answer. But… I feel better after you said those things. I… feel like I know more to my mother than before,” Elwyn replied calmly.

“Elwyn, I really am sorry for everything I’ve said. I’m still not happy with the things your mother has done to me, but I can come to accept you in the end,”

Elwyn smiled at her before turning to leave. They opened the door, before looking back at the Mandalorian, “I’ll go with you. I’ll let Mando go get the Child himself.”

Bo-Katan nodded, and the two parted ways for the night, finally on good terms.

~~~ 

The Slave I began firing at the Imperial shuttle that had the attack group aboard. Boba made sure to miss the ship, knowing his teammates were aboard. Bo-Katan makes the distress call to the cruiser, requesting emergency docking.

“Alright. Stay clear of the cruiser’s launch tube,” the comms officer replied. She launches a TIE fighter squadron, the two ships shooting out of the cruiser to fend off the Slave I. Bo-Katan still flew the shuttle to the hanger bay.  
“We are under attack! We must dock immediately!”  
The hanger control officer quickly aborts the launch procedure as the shuttle crashes through the launch tube and crashes into the bay. Fett quickly destroys the two TIE fighters before jumping into hyperspace, his part of the plan complete.

The girls and Elwyn make their way out of the shuttle, gunning down the officers and troopers surrounding the crashed shuttle. Elwyn gunned down the first few, zooming down the shuttle ramp and taking out a good amount of the troopers. The rest followed behind, helping them in their effort to clear the area. Once the first area was cleaned out, they all continued forward, allowing Din to make his way towards the brig easily.

The group continued through the cruiser, taking out more and more troopers with ease. Cara swung her gun at one trooper due to it jamming beforehand. Elwyn was in the middle of gunning down some surrounding troopers before they felt something in the chest. They could feel Din. He was in trouble. Not sure in what trouble, but they could feel it. They looked to Bo-Katan with fear in their eyes and she looked to them before nodding, knowing that they felt something bad.

Elwyn nodded back, focusing as hard as they could on the feeling of Din. They could feel him struggling, something holding him back. Elwyn panicked, wondering if he was surrounded by troopers or if he was having trouble with the dark troopers. They picked up their pace and shot around a corner to find a dark trooper pining Din against the wall, bashing his head into the metal wall of the ship. Elwyn gasped before feeling a familiar tingling feeling in their fingers again. They pursed their lips and pushed out their hand quickly, pushing the dark trooper away from Din. Elwyn rushed forward quickly and shot a couple of rounds of their blaster and it before Din rushed in with his Beskar staff, destroying it with ease. He panted heavily, speed walking to the dark trooper hanger door and depressurizing it, sucking the remaining droids into space.

He turns to Elwyn, “I thought Bo-Katan said to go with her group.”

“I felt you struggling. So I came quickly. She knows I did. And she let me,”

Din nodded, finally catching his breath as he grips onto the side of his helmet in pain, “Thank you for coming.”

Elwyn nodded to him and the couple continued down the hallway towards the Child’s cell. Elwyn looked to Din worried as they could feel how tense he was as they quickly ran towards the cell. They could hear his sharp and pained breaths.

“You’re hurt,”

“I’ll be fine,”

They decided not to push it. He wasn’t going to stop now, and Elwyn understands exactly what he was feeling. They wouldn’t stop to treat an injury when they were so close to finding Grogu.

The two finally reach the cell, taking out the two troopers who were guarding it before entering it. Elwyn smiled widely as they went inside but the act of happiness soon faded upon seeing the scene before them.

Gideon was inside, Grogu in shackles as the man held the Darksaber over the small kid. Elwyn’s face formed into a scowl and reached for their crossbow blaster but Gideon tsked.

“drop your weapons,” Gideon demanded. Din follows his orders, placing his weapons on the ground. Elwyn slowly follow suit, glaring holes into Gideon’s head.

“The Darksaber gives whoever holds it the right to the Mandalorian throne,”

Din shook his head, “You can keep the sword, we just want the kid.”

Gideon nods, “Ok. I’ve gotten all I want from the Child. To study his blood. It has the potential to bring order back to the galaxy.”

He stood aside, letting Din rush towards Grogu, Elwyn slowly following behind. But before Din could hold the Child in his arms, Gideon activates the Darksaber to strike at Din. Elwyn dives for the Beskar staff and blocks the strike on Din, gritting their teeth upon his strength compared to theirs. Elwyn fended off Gideon further enough for them to throw Din the staff, allowing him to take on Gideon himself. Elwyn reached for the blaster, aiming yet missing the man with each shot. Gideon knocked Din away before sprinting towards Elwyn, trying to lay a blow upon them yet the held the saber still with the Force, grunting upon the amount of concentration needed to keep it still.

“So you can use the Force!” Gideon smirks. Din got up quickly before hitting Gideon on the back with the staff, allowing Elwyn to let go of the saber. They fell to the ground as the other two fought. Din quickly knocked the blade from Gideon’s grasp, knocking him to the ground and aiming the Beskar staff at him.

Elwyn gets up, slightly dizzy as they rush into the cell and bringing the Child out to Din. They took off the shackles and nuzzled the kid’s face, causing him to let out a little giggle. They then look down at Gideon before scowling again, holding Grogu tightly against their chest, the family finally reunited.

~~~ 

The three enter the bridge, Din holding the Darksaber and pushing Gideon in front of him who was now in shackles. Grogu had long fallen asleep against Elwyn’s chest as they walked alongside Din.

Bo-Katan turned to look at the sight before her, “What happened?”

“He’s bought Gideon in alive. The New Republic will have to double the payment,” Cara replies, smirking.

Gideon lets out a laugh, making Elwyn’s blood boil, “That’s not what she meant.”

Din looks to Bo-Katan, who was standing there tensed and wide-eyed, anger leaking off of her as she eyes the Darksaber in Din’s hand.

“She wants the Darksaber,” Gideon adds.

Din looks to it and hands it to Bo-Katan. She only stands there, not moving.

Gideon laughs again, “It can only be taken by defeating the wielder in battle.”

Din shrugs, turning the saber off and handing it to her again, “I yield.”

“It belongs to you now. You can neither give it to her of yield to her,” Gideon replies, looking rather smug at the problem before him. Elwyn looked to Bo-Katan as she looked down at the blade, “The power of the Darksaber lies not in the weapon itself, but the story around it.”

An alarm sounds, causing everyone to snap into a fighting stance.

Fennec rushes over to the control panel closest to her, “The ship’s ray shields have been breached. It’s the dark troopers.”

Elwyn put the Child down quickly before gripping onto both their blasters, readying up their crossbow blaster.

“I wonder how you’ll fight a platoon, seeing as you had trouble with just one,”

Din only ignores his prodding, getting ready to attack. The droids march closer towards the bridge, their footsteps growing louder and louder with each second. Elwyn gulped, a nervous sweat breaking out on their skin. The footsteps soon stopped. Silence hung over the ship, only the hum of the cruiser being heard. Loud banging noises broke the silence just as quickly as it fell, the dark trooper’s fists punching away at the blast doors. Elwyn gripped onto their blasters tighter, ready to fight.

Another alarm quickly sounds. Bo-Katan looks on the monitor to see a lone X-wing fighter fly past the cruiser. It landed in the docking bay, a figure emerging from the ship.

“Identify yourself!” Bo-Katan says over the comms.

No one answered, but Grogu’s ears perked up, sensing something. Elwyn could sense it too. The dark troopers stop their attack on the door, turning around upon sensing the hooded figure through their systems. The two front ones of the group however, continued pounding at the door. The hooded figure walks through the ship, destroying troopers with a green lightsaber, swinging it with ease as it cut through the droids.

With the group distracted, Gideon gets up, picking up a stray blaster and firing at Bo-Katan. The blaster fire bounces off her armour, but the shock knocks her to the ground. He turns to the Child, trying to fire at him but Din jumps in front, protecting him. Gideon scowls slightly before bringing the blaster to his chin to shoot himself, but Cara was quicker, knocking the gun out of his hand before socking him in the head, knocking the man out. 

Grogu reaches for the monitor, watching as the Jedi destroyed the remaining troopers. Elwyn notices the banging stopped and rushed to Din’s side. 

“Open the blast doors,” Din says.

“Are you crazy?” Fennec hisses.

Din moves to the control panel and opens the doors himself. The hooded figure emerges, black cloak fluttering behind the figure. The Jedi looks around before laying eyes on the Mandalorian, pulling his hood back to reveal himself.

Elwyn looked at him before realising who he was. He was Luke Skywalker, the man who helped the Republic destroy both Death Stars. Elwyn had no idea that he was a Jedi. 

“Are you a Jedi?” Din asks, moving to stand on Elwyn’s right.

“Yes,” the Jedi replies simply. He holds his hand out to Grogu, but the small child hesitates, turning to Din and Elwyn.

“He doesn’t want to go with you,” Din replies.

“He wants both of your permission,” He replies, “I pledge to give my life to protect Grogu, but talent without training is nothing. He will not be safe until he masters his abilities.”

Din picks up Grogu, holding him close as he looked the Child in his eyes, “Go with the Jedi. We’ll meet again.”

Grogu’s little hands reach for Din’s helmet, touching the cold metal in his tiny hands. Din reaches up to his helmet with one hand and removed it, looking down at Grogu in his arms when his little black eyes widened upon seeing his father’s face for the first time. And despite every other time he’s tried removing his helmet, Elwyn didn’t stop him this time. 

Elwyn smiled, sucking back a sob that built in their throat as they clung to Din’s side, Grogu’s little hands coming up to rest on Din’s cheeks. He closed his eyes at the touch, smiling slightly at the thought that now the two most important people in his life have now seen him, touched him. know him. Elwyn looked to Din and then back to the kid.  
“Isn’t he handsome?” they whispered to Grogu. The kid looked to Elwyn and cooed happily, yet the coo was glazed in sadness. Sadness for seeing his face. Sadness for his dad’s creed. Sadness in knowing why he was doing this.

It would be a long time till he saw him again.

Elwyn looked to Din and he nodded, knowing what they wanted. They reached for the kid in his arms and they bought him to their chest, gripping tightly upon feeling his little body in their arms. they nuzzled their nose against his neck, trailing a line of little kisses over his forehead and down his nose, brushing their nose against his with a smile.

“You be good. You be the best little guy there is, ok? I’m going to miss you so much Grogu. You’re so strong,”

Grogu lifted his hands to their cheeks too and Elwyn let out a strangled sob, smiling down at him upon feeling his tiny, clawed hands against their cheeks.

“You don’t know how badly I’m going to miss you,” They looked to Din and smiled, pulling Din into a group hug with Grogu, all three of them huddling together, “You don’t know how much we’ll both miss you.”

They all parted and Elwyn handed Grogu back to Din. He smiled at the kid once more, “Don’t be afraid,” he places the Child on the ground, finally letting him go. He looked up to the Jedi and nodded. A blue and white R2 unit enters as Grogu approaches the Jedi. Luke nods at the couple and picks up Grogu, turning to head out to his ship again. The R2 unit whistles as it follows the Jedi into the elevator. Elwyn and Din smiled, tears in their eyes as they both watched their little ball of sunshine, their son, their Grogu, leave. It wouldn’t be forever; they both knew it. But it was hard to part with the ones you love for so long.

And as the elevator door closed, Elwyn sighs, pulling Din into a hug, finally letting the tears fall in loud and strangled sobs. He buried his face into their hair, finally crying alongside his partner.

As the two stood and cried, they both stood together, an heir to a throne and a Jedi offspring. A father and a parent. A man without a creed and a person with no past. A hunter and his Dancer.

But both without a son.

_Fin._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this! I really enjoyed writing this so freaking much! I love Elwyn so so so much and I'm so happy to show them to you all! I can't wait for season 3, but until then, I plan on writing some oneshots that have nothing to do with the main story. I'm just doing it to put some more stuff out there on them!
> 
> As always, if there are any grammar errors, spelling mistakes etc, please tell me as I'm always looking to improve as a writer!

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed that! As always, if there are any mistakes, grammar errors, etc, please tell me as I am always looking to improve as a writer!!


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